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SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES

Edinburgh : Printed by Tkama* and ArchiMd ConftaNr

FOR

DAVID DOUGLAS.

LOS DOS HAMILTON. ADAMS, AXD CO

CAXMUDOC MAC MILLAN AKD BOWES.

v A . JAMK8 MArl.r.HOSE AND SOS*

SCOTLAND

PAGAN TIMES

ana

THE RHIND LECTURES IN ARCHAEOLOGY FOR 1882

BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, LL.D.

KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL MPSEUil OF THE
ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND

v.n.

EDINBUEGH: DAVID DOUGLAS

1886

Ill

4-
V,*

PREFATORY NOTE.

THIS volume completes the series of the Lectures
delivered by me as Rhind Lecturer in connection
with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in the
successive years 1879-82. The scheme of the
Lectures was intended to embrace, in four annual
courses of six Lectures each, a general review of the
existing materials for the Archaeology of Scotland.
In view of their delivery to a popular audience, it
seemed desirable to make the systematic nature of
the investigation a matter of continuous demonstra-
tion. Regarding the historical method of dealing
with prehistoric materials as wholly inapplicable to
them, it behoved me to adopt and substitute a purely
scientific method. Instead of commencing with the
story of primeval man, and leading the narration
downwards (as if drawing it from record), it was
necessary to select a starting-place in the region of
history bordering on the prehistoric, from which by
tracing upwards, through the unrecorded ages, the
interlinked succession of types and systems, I might
penetrate as far towards the primitive conditions of
human life in Scotland as the materials might serve

Vi PREFATORY NOTE.

to cany the investigation. Accordingly the first
volume was devoted to the Remains and Relics of
the Early Celtic Church, and the second to those of
the Christian Celtic Monuments and Metal-work, not
necessarily Ecclesiastical, — the two volumes together
comprehending " Scotland in Early Christian Times."
The third volume was devoted to the Remains and
Relics of the Iron Age, and the present volume to
those of the Bronze and Stone Ages, — the two
together comprehending " Scotland in Pagan Times."

I am indebted to Mr. James Fergusson for the use
of the illustrations of Maeshow ; to Mr. John Evans
for illustrations of Bronze and Stone Implements
(as noted in the Classified List) ; to the Ayr and
Wigtownshire Archaeological Association, through Mr.
R. W. Cochran-Patrick, for illustrations of the Bronze
and Stone Implements of Ayrshire and Wigtown-
shire from their published Collections ; to the Society
of Antiquaries of London for illustrations of Gold
Ornaments, etc., from their Proceedings; and specially
to the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland for their permission to use such of the
Society's woodcuts as might be suitable for the
illustration of the Lectures.

J. A.

14 UiLLBxrii CRESCENT, EDINBURGH,
fll* Jtimory 1886.

CONTENTS.

THE AGE OF BRONZE.

LECTUEE I.

BEONZE AGE BURIALS.

Typical features of Bronze Age deposits — Excavation of Cairn at Col-
lessie in Fife — Its constructive features — Its Burials, burnt and
unburnt, associated with Urns and a Bronze Dagger — Gold mounting
of the Dagger hilt — Cairn Greg at Linlathen, Forfarshire — Its
central Burial associated with an Urn and a Bronze Dagger — Cairn
at Cleigh, Argyllshire — A Bronze Dagger found in its central Cist
— Cairn at Glenforsa, Mull — Urns, Bronze Dagger, and Wrist-guard
of polished Stone found with its Burials — Wrist-guards of Stone found
with other Burials, accompanied by Urns and Arrow-heads of Flint,
Bronze Daggers, etc. — Typical character of the Dagger-blade of
Bronze associated with interments — Other Burials associated with
other forms of Bronze Blades, oval or bifid — Bronze Age Cemeteries
at Magdalen Bridge, Shanwell, and Sheriff-flats— Characteristics of
the Urns found in them — Small urns with cremated bones of infants
— Bronze Age Cemetery at Dalmore, with Beads and Implements of
Stone — Necklaces of Beads of Jet from Bronze Age Graves at
Balcalk, Lunanhead, Tayfield, and Torish — Bronze Bracelets orna-
mented with repousse work from a Grave at Melfort — Armlets of
solid Bronze and Urns found with them at Stobo, Crawford, and
Kinnefl7 — Gold Armlets and Penannular Rings found with burnt
Burials and Urns at Banif and Alloa — Other ornaments of Gold
found with Bronze Age Burials at Orton, Monikie, and Huntiscarth
— Classification of Bronze Age Urns in four varieties — Descriptions
of Urns and their ornamentation — General phenomena of Bronze Age
Burials — Sculptured Cist cover and Side-stones — Cremation and

viii CONTENTS.

Inhumation contemporary in the Bronze Age in Scotland— Indica-
tions of the Bronze Age Culture, . Pages 1-96

LECTURE II.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

A Series of Bronze Age Burials marked externally by overground Stone
Settings— Stone Circles at Mauchrie Moor, Arran— Characteristics
of their enclosed Burials and Urns — Stone Circles and their enclosed
Burials and Urns, etc., at Tuack, Crichie, and Fullarton, Aberdeen-
shire— Stone Circles, with a great recumbent Stone filling one of
the spaces on the south side of the Circle, at Rayne, Sunhoney,
Ardoyne, Ardlair, and Castle Eraser, Aberdeenshire — Typical
features of their underground phenomena — Stone Circles at Glen-
balloch, Tynrich, Badentoy, Kingcausie, Auqnhorthies, Montblairy,
and Balbirnie, and their included Burials and Urns — Review of the
typical features of the Burials found in Stone Circles — All these
features characteristic of Bronze Age Burial — Stone Circles of
S tennis and Callernish— Stone Circles of Scandinavia — Stone-set-
tings of Monumental character that are not circular — Stone-setting
of six rows radiating from a cairn at Garrywhin — of six rows at
Canister— of eight rows at Yarhouse — of twenty-two rows at
Braan— of oval form at Achkinloch, Caithness — These Circles and
Settings of Standing Stones are Sepulchral Monuments of the
Bronze Age— Significance of the Phenomena of Bronze Age Burial
in Scotland, . . . Pages 97-138

LECTURE III.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE.

Hoards of Bronze Implements and Weapons deposited in the soil, but
not associated with Burials— Hoard of Swords, etc., at Grosvenor
Crescent, Edinburgh— of Swords, etc., at Tarves, Aberdeenshire—
of Swords, Spear-heads, etc., in Duddingston Loch — of Swords on
Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh— of Swords, etc., and Gold Ornament at

CONTENTS. IX

Gogar, Midlothian — of Swords, etc., at Cauldhame, Brechin — of
Swords, etc., in Skye — of Spear-heads, Kings, etc., at Achtertyre,
Elgin — of Spear-heads and Axes at Gospertie, Fife — of Spear-heads
and Gouge at Torran, near Ford, Loch Awe — of Spear-heads, Sword,
Axes, Gouge, and Rings at Killin — of Spear-heads, Axes, etc., at
Inschock, Nairn — of Spear-heads and Axes at Highfield, Dingwall —
of Axes, Swords, etc., at Dalduff, Kilkerran — of Swords at Shuna,
Argyllshire — of Swords at Corsbie Moss, Berwickshire— of Swords
at Jacksbank, Glenbervie — of Dagger-blades at Kingarth, Bute — of
Shields at Beith, Ayrshire — of Shields at Yetholm, Roxburghshire —
of Axes, Armlets, etc., at Rehill, Aberdeenshire — of Axes at Bell's
Mills, Midlothian— of Axes, etc., at Forfar — of Axes, etc., at
Poolewe, Ross-shire— of Axes at Balcarry, Wigtownshire — of Axes
at Sluie, Morayshire — of Axes at Colleonard, Banffshire — of Axes
at Fortrie of Balnoon, Banffshire — of Axes at Tonderghie, Wigtown-
shire— of Axes at Culzean, Ayrshire — Typical characteristics of the
Hoards — Classification of the different varieties of Implements and
Weapons of the Age of Bronze — Class of Weapons — Swords, leaf-
shaped and rapier-shaped — Daggers and Halbard-blades — Spear-
heads and Moulds for casting them — Shields — War Axes — Trumpets
— Class of useful tools — Axes, flat, flanged, and socketed, and Moulds
for casting them — Chisels — Gouges — Fish-hooks — Sickles — Anvils
— Caldrons — Hoards of Gold Ornaments — Of Armlets in Dumbarton-
shire— in Stirlingshire — at Ormidale in Arran — at Carmichael,
Lanarkshire — at Coul, Islay — in Galloway — at Kilmaillie, Inverness-
shire — in Argyllshire — in the Hebrides — at Muckart in Perthshire
— at Gullane, East Lothian — at Strond, Harris — at Cromdale,
Inverness-shire— in Galloway — in Ayrshire — Of twisted Armlets,
or Necklets at Largo in Fife — at Cairnsmuir, Peeblesshire — at
Urquhart, Elginshire — at Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire — at Little Loch-
broom, Ross-shire — at Moor of Rannoch — at Slateford, Midlothian
— Diadems of Gold at Coulter, Lanarkshire — at Achentaggart,
Dumfriesshire — Significance of the abundant use of Gold in the Age
of Bronze — Characteristics of the Culture and Civilisation of the
Bronze Age in Scotland, . . . . Pages 139-228

X CONTENTS.

THE AGE OF STONE.
LECTURE IV.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

Typical character of the Chambered Cairns of the Stone Age — Long
Cairn at Yarhoiue, 240 feet in length— Its Chamber and Entrance
Passage — Subdivision of the Chamber by Monoliths— Construction
of the Roof— Character of the Floor and its cremated Burials —
External Structure of the Cairn and its Crescentic Ends or Horns
—Second long Cairn at Yarhouse, 190 feet in length— it* Chamber
and Content* — Cairn at Ormiegill, Ulbster — its External Structure
and Crescentic Ends or Horns — its Chamber and Content* — Stone
Implement* found with it* Cremated Burials — Cairn at Ganywhin
—it* External Structure — its Chamber and Contents — Flint Arrow-
heads found with it* Cremated Burials — Circular Cairns with
Central Chambers — Cairn at Canister— its Chamber and Contents —
Burnt Burials, Urns and Flint Implements— Cairns at Yarhouse —
Characteristics of their External and Internal Structure — Cairn at
Bruan with a Side-chamber off the Central Chamber— Long Cairns
at Rhinavie and Skelpick — General Characteristics of the Long
Cairn with Crescentic Endings or Horns — Area of the type — Relation
of the Caithness Cairns to the Long Barrows of England— Their
Builders a homogeneous people spread over the whole area of
Britain, . . . Pages 229-267

LECTURE V.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OP ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

Circular Cairn at Achnacree, Argyllshire— its Structure and Content*—
Cairn at Largie, Kilmartin, Argyllshire— it* Structure and Content*
—Cairn at Kilchoan, Argyllshire— it* Structure and Content*—
Typical feature* of the Caithness group also exhibited in the

CONTENTS. XI

Argyllshire group — The Orkney group of Chambered Cairns —
Chambered Cairn of Maeshow — Kunic Inscriptions on the walls of
its tinterior Chamber — Questions of its Origin and Purpose — Its
typical relationship to the general group of Stone Age Chambered
Cairns — Cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray — Cairn at Quoyness
in Sanday — Cairn at Quanterness near Kirkwall — Cairn at Wideford
Hill — Similarity of feature in this group of Chambered Cairns —
Cairn with tripartite Chamber on the Holm of Papa Westray — Cairn
with Crescentic Endings in Burray — Cairn at Bookan — Cairn at
Unstan — Contents of its Chamber — Urns, Flint Implements, etc. —
General features of Construction and Contents essentially the same in
all the groups — Cairns encircled by a ring of Standing Stones — The
group of Cairns at Clava, Strathnairn — Eelative Antiquity of the
Stone Circles and the Chambered Cairns — Review of the special
features and characteristics of the Stone Age Cairns and their
Burial Customs — Eelative quality of the Culture and Civilisation
they disclose, ..... Pages 268-304

LECTUEE VI.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

Materials which disclose the Stone Age Culture and Civilisation in
Scotland — Manner of their occurrence — Earely found in Hoards or
Groups — Classification according to their obvious uses — Perforated
Axes and Hammers — Imperforate Axes and Adzes of polished Stone
found singly or in groups — Chipped and polished Axes and Adzes
of Flint — Methods of grinding, polishing, and hafting — Spear- and
Arrow-heads of Flint — their different varieties — Manner in which
they were affixed to the Shaft — Manufacture of Arrow-shafts with
Flint Tools — Flint Knives — their different varieties — Ground-edged
Knives of Porphyry and Schist — Flint Saws — Borers and Flaking
Tools of Flint — Scrapers and Strike-lights — Flint Factories, or Sites
on which the Manufacture of Flint Tools has been carried on —
Comparison of the methods employed in these ancient Flint Work-

xli CONTENTS.

•hops with modern methods — Some of their processes have not
been discovered by modern science — Qualities of Workmanship
displayed in the product* of these ancient Factories — Review of
the General Phenomena of the Stone Age in Scotland with reference
to its special phases of Culture and Civilisation — General Outcome
of the whole Investigation, . Pages 305-387

IXDKX, . . Pages 389-397

CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

SEPULCHRAL URNS— BRONZE AGE TYPES.

FIG. PAGE

2. From Cairn at Collessie, .... 6

3. From Cairn at Collessie, . .7
6. From Cairn at Linlathen, . . .11

10. From Cairn at Glenforsa, . 14

13. FromFyrish, . . . . 16

14. From Stobshiel, . . . . ,20

15. From Shuttlefield, Lockerbie, . . . .20
25-31. From Magdalen Bridge, ..... 30-36

32. From Shanwell, . .- . . . .37

34-39. From Sheriff-flats, . . 40-43

40. From Blairgowrie, ...... 44

41. From Barnfauld, . . 44
42,43. From Bucklyvie, . . .44

44. From Genoch,1 . . 45

45. From Craigdhu, . * . . . • . 46

46. From Benachie, V . ( . . . .47

47. From South Ronaldsay and Dunbar, / 47

48. From Killucken, ... .48
50. From Dalmore, ... .49
55. From Balcalk, . . . '.52
59. From Lunanhead, . . . .54
64. From Crawford, . . . . 58
66. From Kinneff, . . .59
68. From Banff, . . . 61
73. FromAlloa, . 63
76. From Monikie, . . 66

79. From Birsley, 71

80. From Drymmie, . 71

81. From Quarryford, . . 72

i Lent by the Archaeological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.

Xiv CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fio. "•*««

82. From Seamill, . 73

83-80. From Lesmurdie, 74

86-89. From Broomend, 76

90. From Slap, . 77

01. From Dairy, . 77

92. From Freefield, 78

93. From Drem, . 78

94. From Parkhill, 79

95. From Buckle, . 80

96. From Tents Moor, . 81

97. From Balmuick, 82

98. From Darnhall, 82
99, 100. From Kingsbarns, . 83

101. From Glenhead, 83

103. From Murleywell, 84

104. From Ninewells, 84

105. From Stannergate, . 85

106. FromOban, . 85

107. From Kennyshillock, . 86
111. From Eddertoun, 90

112,113. From Tealing, . 91

114. From Stenton, 92

117,118. FromTormore, . 98,99

120. From Tuack, . 103

124. From Crichie, . . 107

126. From Glenballoch, . 112

128. From Montblairy, . 1K>

SEPULCHRAL URNS— STONE AGE TYPES.

261,262. From Chambered Cairn, Achnacree, . 271

263. From Chambered Cairn, Largie, JTi'

274,279. From Chambered Cairn, Unstan, . 294-296

BRONZE IMPLEMENTS.

4. Dagger-blade, Collewie, . 8

7. Dagger-blade, Linlathen, 12

8. Dagger-blade, Cleigh, . 13

9. Dagger-blade, Drumlanrick, . 13

CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV

FIG. PAGE

16. Knife-blade, Shuttlefield, . . . . 21

17. Oval Blade, Lierabol, . 22

19. Oval Blade, Rogart, . . 24

20. Oval Blade, Balblair, ... .24

21. Bifid Blades, Bowerhouses, .... 26

22. Bifid Blade, from the Shannon, ... 26

23. Bifid Blade, Kinleith, . . 27

24. Oval Blade, Magdalen Bridge, ... 29
33. Oval Blade, Shanwell, . . . . 38
49. Tanged Blade, Dalmore, . . .49
56. Pin, Balcalk, . . . - . . . 52

62. Bracelet, Melfort, ... 57

63. Arm-ring, Stobo, . . ... . 58

65. Arm-ring, Crawford, . . . 59

67. Arm-ring, Kinneff, . . . . . 60

138. Pin, Grosvenor Crescent, . . . 140

139. Mounting, Grosvenor Crescent, . . . 140

141. Sword, Grosvenor Crescent,1 . . . . 141

142. Sword, Sheath-end, and Brooch, Gogar, . . . 144

143. Sheath-end, Cauldhame, .... 145

144. Sword, Spear-head, and Pin, Skye, . . . 145

145. Oval Blades, socketed, Skye and Invergordon, . 146

146. Spear-head, Auchtertyre, . ^ . . . 147

147. Armlet (penannular), Auchtertyre, . . . 148
148,149. Spear-heads, Torran, ... .148

150. Gouge, Torran, ..... 149

151. Sword, Killin, ..... 150

152. Spear-head, Killin, ... .150
153,154. Axes (socketed), Killin, ... .151

155. Gouge, Killin, . . 151

156. King (hollow), Killin, . . 152

157. Armlet (penannular), Killin, . . . . 152

158. Spear-head, Highfield, .... 153

159. Axes (socketed), Dalduff,2 . . .154

160. Sword, Jacksbank, . ... 156
161,162. Shield, Lugtonridge,2 .... 158

163. Shield, Yetholm, .... .159

1 Lent by Mr. John Evans.

2 Lent by the Archaeological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.

XVi CLASSIFIED LIST OF 1LLU8TRATI'

164. Armlet (peiuumular), Rehill,

165. Axe. (socketed), Bell's Mill*, . 161

166. Axe« (socketed), Forfar, 161

167. Spear-head, Forfar, . ";-

168. Ring (penannular), Poolewe, . 163
169,170. Axes (flanged), Balcarry,1 . '«4, 165

171. Axe (flat), Sluie, 166

172. Axe (flat), CulMM,1 !':-

173. Sword, South Uiat, 172

174. Sword, River Tay, . 172

175. Sword, Wigtownshire,1 174

176. Sword, Keith House, . 174

177. Sword, Kirkoswald,1 . 175

178. Dagger, Gretna,1 176

179. Dagger, Pitcaithly, . 176

180. Dagger, Kilrie,8 177

181. Dagger, Whiteleya, . 177

182. Halberd, Galloway, . 178

183. Halberd, Welbsleben, 179

185. Spear-head, Whitehaugh,1 . 181

186. Spear-head, Denhead, 181

187. Speai-head, Barhullion,1 182

188. Spear-head, Belhaven, . 182

189. Spear-head, Crawford, . . . .183

190. Spear-head, Linton, . . 183

191. Spear-head, Merton Hall,1 . 184

192. Spear-head (unknown), ... 184

193. Spear-head, Lanarkshire, . . . 184

194. Spear-head, Craigton, . . 185

195. Spear-head, Dean Water, . 185

198. Battle-axe, Bannockburn, . 188

199. Trumpet, Coilsfield,1 . 189

200. Axe (flat), Innennessun,1 . 190
202. Axe (flat), Lawhead, . . .192

204. Axe (flat), Nairn, ... .194

205. Axe (flanged), Moss of Cree,1 . 195

206. Axe (flanged), Greenlees,* ... .195

> Lent by the Arclurological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.
1 Lent by Mr. John Evans.

CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvii

FlQ. PAGE

207. Axe (flanged), Applegarth,1 . 196

208. Axe (flanged), Dams, . 196

209. Axe (flanged), Largs,2 . 197

210. Axe (flanged), Glenbuck,2 . . 197

211. Axe (socketed), Strath, . 198

212. Axe (socketed), Knockandmaize,' . . . 199

214. Chisel, Low Torrs,2 . . .201

215. Chisel, Burreldales, . . 201

216. Chisel (tanged), . 201

217. Chisel, Kingoldrum, ... 201

218. Gouge, River Tay, . 201

219. Fish-hooks, Glenluce, . 202

220. Sickle, Edengerach, . . 203

221. Sickle, Errol, . .203

222. Anvil, Oykel, . . 205

223. Caldron, Carlingwark, 206

224. Caldron, Kincardine, . . 206

225. Caldron, West of Scotland, . .207

MOULDS FOR BRONZE INSTRUMENTS.

196,197. For Spear-heads, Campbeltown, . . 186,187

203. For Flat Axes, . . 193

213. For Socketed Axes, Rosskeen, •. . . 199

GOLD ORNAMENTS.

5. Mounting of Bronze Dagger-hilt, Collessie, . . 9

69. Armlet, Banff, . . . . . 62

70-72. Rings, small penannular, Banff, . . 62

74. Armlet, Alloa, ... 64

75. Ear-ring, Orton, ..... 65

77. Mounting of Dagger-hilt, Monikie, . . 66

78. Discs, Huntiscarth, ..... 68
142. Ring (hollow, penanuular), Gogar, . 144

226. Armlet (penannular), West Highlands, . . 209

227. Ring (hollow, penannular), West Highlands, 210
228,229. Armlets (penannular), Carmichael,3 . . . 211, 212

1 Lent by Mr. John Evans.

- Lent by the Archaeological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.

3 Lent by the Society of Antiquaries, London.

xviii CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Pio. rAO«

230,231. Armlet* (twisted), Largo, 215

232. Armlet (twisted), Belhelvie, . 219

233. Armlet (twisted), Rannoch, . 220

234. Armlet (twisted), Slateford, 221

235. Diadem, Coulter,

236. Diadem, Auchentaggart, --'•'•

STONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC.

11. Wrist-guard, Glenforsa, I"1

12. Wrist-guard, Fyrish, . 15

52. Flint Knife, Dalmore, . ~»0

53. Beads of Jet, Dal more, . 51

54. Wrist-guard, Dulmore, 51

57. Flint Knife, Balcalkj . 52

58. Beads of Jet (Necklace), Balcalk, 53

60. Beads of Jet (Necklace), Tayfield, . 55

61. Beads of Jet (Necklace), Torish. . 56
78. Beads of Amber, Huntiscarth, . 68

102. Hammer, Glenhead, . . 83

108. Sculptured Cist-cover, Carnwath, . . 88

109. Sculptured Cist-stones, Kilmartin, . . 89

115. Flint Knife, Stenton, . 93

1 16. Whetstone, Stenton, . .93
123. Hammer, Crichie, . . 106
240. Beads of Lignite, Yarhouse, . 240

243. Hammer, Ormiegill, . . • ^46

244. Flint Knife, Ormiegill, 246

245. Arrow-head, Ormiegill, . . 246

246. Flint Knife, Ormiegill, . . 246
S51. Flint Knife, Canister, . .253

268, 269. Polished Implements, QuoynMft, . --';

280. Arrow-heads, Unstan, . M

281. Scraper, Unstan, . . 298

282. Flint Knife, Unstan, . 298

283. Flaking Tool, Unstan. . IN

285. Axe (unHnished), Coll, . 308

286. Axe (perforated), Shetland,1 *»

1 Lent by Mr. John Evans

CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xix

FIG. PAGE

287. Axe (perforated), Portpatrick,1 . . . 309

288. Axe (perforated), Chapelton,1 .... 310

289. Axe (perforated), Montfode,1 . . . .311

290. Axe (perforated), Claycrop. . ' . . - . 312

291. Axe (perforated), Newburgh, . . . . 313

292. Axe (perforated), Fardenreoch,1 . . . 314

293. Axe (perforated), Duns Castle, . . . 315

294. Axe (perforated), Eiver Tay, . . . . 316

295. Axe (perforated), Loch of Friars Carse, . . 317

296. Axe (perforated), Prieston,1 . . . . 317

297. Axe (perforated), Torhouskie, .... 318

298. Axe (perforated), Machermore, . . .- 318

299. Axe (perforated), Portpatrick, . . . 319

300. Axe (perforated), Kirkcowan, . . . 319

301. Axe (perforated), Balmaclellan, . . . . 319

302. Hammer, Cleughhead, ..... 320

303. Hammer, Urquhart, . . . . .321

304. Hammer, Corwen, . . . 322
305,306. Axes, Campbeltown, ..... 323

307. Axe, Aberdeenshire, ..... 324

308. Axe, Drumour, . . . . . 325

309. Axe, Daviot,2 ...... 326

310,312. Axes, Tingwall, . » . .327,329

313,314. Axes, Fochabers, ..... 330,331

315. Axe, Affleck, . . . . ' . . 333

316. Axe, Urquhart, ..... 333

317. Axe, Fordoun, . . 334

318. Axe, Dundee, ..... 334

319. Axe, Old Deer, . 335

320. Axe, Gilmerton,2 . . . . .336

321. Adze, Slains, . . . . - 337

322. Axe, Dundee, ... . 338

323. Axe, Dalmeny,2 ... • . 339

324. Axe, Caithness,2 . . . . 339

325. Axe, Berwickshire, ..... 339

326. Axe, Lerwick, ... . 340

327. Axe, Cunningsburgh, . . * . 340

1 Lent by the Archaeological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.

2 Lent by Mr. John Evans.

XX CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILUTKTRATIOKB.

no. '*°*

328. Axe, Shetland, 341

320. Adze, Shetland, . : M 1

330. Adze, Shetland, 342

331. Axe, Ericht, . 343

332. Axe, Cunzierton, . . 344

333. Adze, Glenluce, ... 345

334. Adze, Little Barns, . .345

335. Axe, Kirklaucbline, .

336. Axe, Stirlingshire,1 . ... 347

337. Axe, Brownhill,* . . 348

338. Grinding-stone, Lamberton, . . v . 349
889. Grinding-stone, Stoneykirk, . . . 860

340. Axe (handled), New Guinea, . . . . 351

341. Adze (handled), South Pacific, . .352

342. Adze (handled), New Guinea, . 352

343. Axe (handled), South Australia, . . 353

344. Axe and its handle, Solway MOBS, . . . 353

345. Axe (with mark of handle), Ervie, . . . 354

346. Spear-head, Urquhart, . . . 355

347. Spear-head, Machermore, .... 355

348. Arrow-head, Culbin Sands, .... 3:.i;

349. Arrow-head, Urquhart, .... 3.~><;
350,351. Arrow-heads, Culbin Sands, .... 356

352. Arrow-head, Knockscreb,2 . . . . 8M

353. Arrow-head (serrated), Petty, . . . 357
354,355. Arrow-heads (serrated), Urquhart, . . . .V>7
356,357. Arrow-heads (barbed), Lanfine,2 . 358

358. Arrow-head (barbed), Glenluce, . . . 358

359,360. Arrow-head (barbed), Torrs, ... 358

361. Arrow-head (barbed), Culbin Sands, . . 358

362. Arrow-head (barbed), Torre, . .359
863. Arrow-head (barbed), Shapinsay, . . . 359
364. Arrow-head (barbed), Torre, . . 359

365,366. Arrow-heads (barbed), Culbin Sands. . . 868

367. Arrow-head (barbed), Whitecrook, . . 359
866. Arrow-head (stemless), Ellon, . . .360

369,370. Arrow-heads (stemless), Torre,* . . 860

> Lent by Mr. John Evans.

* Lent by the Arclueological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.

CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi

FlO. PAGE

371-373. Arrow-heads (single-barbed), Culbin Sands, . . 361

374. Arrow-head (in the shaft), California, . . 361

375. Arrow-head (in the shaft), Fyvie, . . . 362

376. Arrow-head (in the shaft), Geisboden,1 . . 362

377. Ridged Flake of Flint, . . . .363
378,379. Knives of Flint, ..... 363

380. Instrument for planing Arrow-shafts, . . 363

381. Flint Knife, Rousay, ..... 366
382-385. Trimmed Flakes, Dairy,2 . . . .367
386,387. Flint Knives, Culbin Sands, .... 368

388. Flint Knife, Monikie, .... 368

389. Flint Knife, Culbin Sands, .... 368

390. Flint Knife (ground-edged), Urquhart, . • . 369

391. Flint Knife (ground-edged), Strachur, : . 369

392. Flint Knife (oval), Kintore, . . . .370

393. Flint Knife (oval), Fordoun, .... 370

394. Knife of Porphyry (oval), Shetland, . . . 370
395-397. Knives of Schist, Shetland, . . . .371
398-400. Flint Saws, Glenluce, . . . .. 372

401. Borer of Flint, Galston,2 . . . . 373

402. Borer of Flint, Culbin Sands, . . . 373

403. Flaking Tool of Flintr Fordoun, . . • . 374

404. Flaking Tool of Flint, Corennie, , . . 374

405. Flint Scraper, Urquhart, . . . .375
406,407. Flint Scraper and Pyrites, Flowerburn, . . 376

408. Flint Scraper, Torrs,2 ..... 377

409. Flint Scraper, Gullane, .... 377
410,411. Flint Scrapers, Elginshire, .... 377

BONE IMPLEMENTS.

51. Hollow Cylinder or Button, Dalmore, . . 50

. 270. Implement (use unknown), Quoyness, . . 287

GROUND-PLANS, SECTIONS, VIEWS.

1. Cairn, Collessie, Fife, . . . 4

18. Tumulus, Burreldales, .... 23

1 Lent by Mr. John Evans.

* Lent by the Archaeological Association of Ayr and Wigtownshire.

XXii CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fio. «•*«

109. Cut, Kilmartin, 89

110. Cairn, Eddertoun, . 90
119. Stone Circle, Tuack, . 102

1 2 1 , 1 22. Stone Circle, Crichie, 1 05

125. Stone Circle, Ardlair, 110

127. Stone Circle, Kingcausie, . 114

129. Stone Circle, Stennis,1 . 118

130. Stone Circle (smaller), Stennis,1 . . . 119

131. Stone Circle, Callernish, . . 120

132. Chambered Cairn, Callernish, . . . 121

133. Stone-setting (parallel rows), Garrywlun, . 127

134. Stone-setting (parallel rows), Canister, . . 129

135. Stone-setting (parallel rows), Yarhouse, . . 130

136. Stone-setting (parallel rows), (Myth. . . 131

137. Stone-setting (oval), Acbkinloch, . . . 133

237. Chambered Cairn, Yarhouse, . . . • 231

238. Chamber in Cairn, Yarhouse, . . . 232

239. Chambered Cairn (No. 2), Yarhouse, . . 238

241. Chambered Cairn (long), Camster, . . . 241

242. Chambered Cairn, Ormiegill, . . . 24.r>
247. Chambered Cairn, Garrywhin, . . . 247

249. Chambered Cairn (round), Camster, . . . 250

250. Chambered Cairn (section), Camster, . . 251

252. Chambered Cairn (No. 3), Yarhouse, . . 254

253. Chambered Cairn (No. 4), Yarhouse, . . 256

254. Chambered Cairn (No. 5), Yarhouse, . . 257

255. Chambered Cairn (No. 6), Yarhouse, . . 257

256. Chambered Cairn, Bruan, .... 259

257. Chambered Cairns, Rhinavie, . . 261

258. Chambered Cairn (view), Rhinavie, . . . 262

259. Chambered Cairn, Skel pick, . .

260. Chambered Cairn, Achnacree, . . . 270

264. Chambered Cairn, Maeshow,- . . 275

265. Chamber in Cairn, Maeshow,* ... 276
Ml Chambered Cairn, Holm of Papa Westray, . 282
267. Chambered Cairn, Quoyness, Sanday, . 284

1 Lent by the Society of Antiquaries. London.
* Lent by Mr. James FergUMon.

CLASSIFIED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FlO. PAGE

271. Chambered Cairn, Quanterness, . . . 288

272. Chambered Cairn, Bookan, . . . 291

273. Chambered Cairn, Unstan, . . . 293
284. Chambered Cairn, Clava, .... 301

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

THE AGE OF BRONZE.

LECTUEE I.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

HAVING dealt with the remains of the Iron Age culture
and civilisation of Scotland in the last course of Lectures,
I now proceed to deal similarly with those of the Age of
Bronze. When they have been exhausted, the residue will
represent the remains that are assignable to the Age of
Stone ; and to these the last three Lectures of the present
course will be devoted.

In dealing with the remains of the Age of Bronze, we shall
examine and consider, not only the nature and characteristics
of the objects of bronze themselves, but also the nature and
characteristics of the objects in other materials which have
been found in association with them. It has been already
shown that the circumstances which have controlled the
actual associations, and the phenomena which determine the
scientific associations of objects of various uses, purposes,
and materials, are primarily those of the burial deposits of a
period. Hence I shall select for description and examination
of their typical characteristics — first, a series of burials
which may be determined to belong to the Bronze Age by
their essential circumstances or underground phenomena ;
1

2 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

second, a series of burials characterised by special develop-
ments of their non-essential overground phenomena, with
the view of ascertaining whether they also exhibit, or do not
exhibit, the essential characteristics of Bronze Age deposits ;
and lastly, the hoards or accumulations of Bronze Age objects
which have not been found associated with burial

The Age of Bronze has been defined to be that stage of
progress towards the existing culture and civilisation which
manifested itself in the construction of cutting tools and
weapons of bronze. When therefore we find a series of
deposits in which no implement or weapon of iron occurs,
but in which the tools and weapons, which, in the Iron
Age, were made of iron, are found to be of bronze, although
there may be along with them many other articles in other
materials — iron alone excepted — it is clear that such a series
of deposits must necessarily be assigned to the Age of Bronze.
But practically it is not always possible, and fortunately it
is not always necessary, to adduce the presence of bronze in
a particular deposit, as part of the demonstration that it
must be assigned to the Age of Bronze. There are other
features which are so constant as to become typical, and
when their typical character has been once established, they
serve as indications no less certain and conclusive than the
presence of bronze in its typical character. For instance, as
we have already seen that a certain peculiar system of
ornamentation was characteristic of such Iron Age objects
in different materials as had surface decoration applied to
them, we shall now see that the total absence of these
peculiar forms of ornamentation becomes a characteristic
feature of the surface decoration of the Age of Bronze. But
we shall also see that the ornamentation which is applied to
objects that are demonstrably of Bronze Age types, though
it be ornamentation which is totally unlike that of the Iron
Age, is yet of a nature so characteristic and peculiar as to

BRONZE AGE BUKIALS. 3

be absolutely distinctive of the age to which it belongs.
The difference between the two systems will become appar-
ent as we proceed, but it may be briefly formulated in the
statement, that while the distinctive ornamentation of the
Iron Age was a system of curvilinear decoration — the curves
not being parts of circles — the distinctive ornamentation of
the Bronze Age is a system of rectilinear decoration asso-
ciated with occasional circles or parts of circles. Again, this
distinctive system of ornamentation of the Bronze Age is
associated with a very remarkable development of sepulchral
pottery, the entire absence of which was found to be one of
the most striking features of the Iron Age deposits of Scot-
land, so far as they are yet known. These highly-decorated
urns of clay, which are such constant and characteristic
accompaniments of the burial deposits of the Age of Bronze,
present several varieties of form and purpose, but they are
all characterised by one system of decoration. They are not
found, even in the majority of cases, to be actually associated
with implements of bronze ; but the forms and the orna-
mentation having been established as typical, the fact that
the typical form associates itself sometimes with bronze, but
never with iron, is sufficient to invest it with the character
of a typical form of the Bronze Age. The bearing of these
explanatory remarks upon what is to follow will become
apparent 'as we proceed with the examination of the series
of burials now to be described.

In August 1876 and 1877 I was present at the excavation
of a large cairn on the property of Mr. William Wallace of
Newton of Collessie, in Fife, by whom the excavation was
undertaken. The cairn was a mass of stones and boulders,
covering an area of about 120 feet in diameter, and rising in
the centre to a height of about 14 feet above the natural
level. The work was continued over two seasons, and its

4 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

magnitude may be inferred from the fact that upwards of a
thousand cart-loads of stones were removed in the course of
the operations. Commencing at the south-east side, a width
of about 8 yards on the ground level (as shown by the
lighter shading on the ground-plan, Fig. 1) was cleared of

Fig. 1.— Orouud-Plan and Section of Cairn at Collessie.
(Section on the line cd.)

the stones down to the subsoil By this means the whole of
the central portion of the cairn was examined, and two seg-
ments of its circumference were left Of these segments, the
one on the east side had been partially removed in the con-
struction of the road, while that on the west had been appar-

BRONZE AGE BUEIALS. 5

ently used as a place of deposit for stones removed from the
field in which the cairn was situated. The bulk of the cairn
was found to be composed of gathered stones and boulders
none very small, and few beyond such a size as could be
lifted or rolled by two men. The larger stones were mostly
in the lower part of the cairn. The stones throughout were
simply agglomerated, not built or placed with any visible
arrangement, except in one special feature. A few feet
within the margin of the cairn there was a ring of sandstone
slabs set on edge continuously round the cairn as far as we
examined it, although we did not meet with it on the south-
east side, where we first broke into the mass of the cairn.
It seemed therefore as if it had not completely encircled the
cairn, but it certainly formed a special feature in its con-
struction around the major part of its circumference. It
seemed as if it had originally formed the base-line or ex-
ternal boundary of the mass of loose stones composing the
cairn, which had gradually slid down over it, and in process
of time concealed it. The slabs of which this base-line was
composed were from 3 to 4 feet in height, well bedded in the
gravel on their edges. The space within this boundary,
from which the mass of the cairn had now been removed,
presented a remarkable appearance. It was covered with a
layer of fine clay, mottled with marks of fire in separate
spaces, some of which were several feet in diameter. In
some of these spaces the ashes and charcoal of wood might
be gathered in handfuls, and the whole surface of the site of
the cairn was more or less strewn with minute particles of
charcoal. In some places this intermixture of ashes and
charcoal extended deep into the subsoil underneath the
surface. This is accounted for by the fact that there were
cremated burials in the gravel underneath the cairn.

In the cairn itself we found but one burial, placed on the
natural surface of the ground in a cist of slabs, a little to the

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

south-west of the centre. The cist (see the Ground-Plan and
Section) was composed of five slabs, four forming the sides
and ends, and the fifth the cover. The interior of the cist
was 4 feet 6 inches in length, and 3 feet wide in the centre,
one end being slightly narrower than the other. The side
stones had been pressed outwards by the superincumbent
weight, and there was a vacant space of 15 inches in depth
between the under side of the covering stone and the gravel
in the bottom. In the gravel a few small portions of the
unburnt bones of a human skeleton were found in a condition
of extreme decay. A portion of a leg-bone found near the
narrower end of the cist sufficed to determine the position of
the body. Near the other end, and therefore placed either
behind the shoulder or before the face of the corpse, a tall,

handsomely-shaped, and finely-
made urn of clay (Fig. 2) lay
on its side, partially imbedded
in the gravel. Half of its longi-
tudinal section seems to have
stood out of the gravel in the
free space of the upper part of
the cist, and, thus exposed to
the action of air and moisture,
may have softened and per-
ished. But the half which
remains is sufficient to exhibit
the form and proportions, the
workmanship and ornamenta-
tion, of this peculiar vessel.
It stands 9 inches high, and
measures 6 inches across the
mouth. It is peculiarly grace-
ful in shape, narrowing slightly below the brim, swelling
again to its greatest width at about half its height, and

Fig. 2.— Urn found in the central
Ciat of the Cairn at Collessie
(9 inches in height).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

again contracting to a diameter of 4 inches across the
bottom. It is thin and well made, of a fine paste, with
a very slight admixture of particles of stone, and it has
been well baked in an open fire. Although made without
the aid of a wheel, it is almost regular in its outlines.
Its ornamentation is arranged in bands, and consists of
groups of parallel lines alternating with bands of zigzags
and short oblique lines, produced by the impressions of a
tool with teeth like those of a comb.

This one burial was all that was discovered in the cairn,
and it was apparently the burial for which the cairn was
constructed. It was an unburnt burial, and no relics of any
kind were associated with it except the urn.

But on sounding the subsoil underneath the base of the
cairn, two spots were discovered showing signs of previous
disturbance. In one of these (shown in the Section at b),
when the loose gravel was thrown out, the excavation as-
sumed the form of an oval .
pit about 4 feet by 3, and
6 feet deep. In the bottom
of this pit, imbedded among
gravel largely mixed with
ashes and charcoal, frag-
ments of an urn of the
same form as that found in
the cist were discovered.
Its fractures were old, and
the pieces, about thirty in
number, lay nearly together
and on the same level.

All thp mWpq nf thp Fig. 3. -Urn found 6 feet under the base
' P1€ of the Cairn (7 inches in height).

vessel were recovered, ex-
cept two, which do not affect its form as it is now
reconstructed (Fig. 3). It measures 7 inches high, and

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

C inches across the mouth. It is smaller in size, longer
and straighter in the brim, and shorter in the bulge, than
the first urn, but is of the same peculiar form, the same
in texture and finish, and similar in the character of its
ornamentation.

In another pit (shown on the Section at a), which had
been excavated to a depth of 4 feet underneath the natural
level, there appeared at that depth
a layer of burnt bones, about an inch
in thickness, spread over a space of
3 or 4 square feet. The fragments
of the bones were perfectly white,
broken into very small pieces, and
exhibiting the cracked and contorted
condition usually observed in deposits
• >f this character. I recognised among
i them portions of a human skull and

j of the vertebral column. The atlas

H was entire, and seemed to be that of
an adult. There was no appearance
of an urn, but among the bones lay a
finely-made, thin, and tapering blade
of bronze (Fig. 4), still bearing on its
broad end the mark of its handle.
It had suffered some damage by
the gravel under which it lay
having been trodden over previous
to the discovery of the deposit, but
it is perfectly recognisable as a bronze blade of a special
form, characterised by its thinness and its tapering, and by
its attachment to the handle by rivets, the broken rivet-
holes being still visible in the specimen. When first taken
up, there were adherent to the surface of the bronze some
patches of dark-coloured matter, covered with hair-like fila-

Fig. 4.— Bronze Dagger-
blade found 4.J feet
under the base of tbe
Cairn (6 inches in
length).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 9

inents, and below the darker patches a browner and softer
layer exhibiting the appearance of decayed woody fibre.
When examined with a pocket lens, this appearance of
woody structure was distinctly visible among the adhesive
mass of wet ashes, bone-dust, and earth, which covered the
surface of the blade. Parts of the surface of the darker upper
layer were also seen to be covered with a coating of short
straight filaments, of such an excessively fragile nature that
the slightest touch was sufficient to obliterate their form. As
much of this filamentary coating of the dark-brown layer
of woody fibre on the blade as suffices to demonstrate its
character with certainty has been preserved. When dry, it
separated from the blade in small, twisted, slightly curling
masses, which on the under side have a leathery appearance,
and yield the odour of leather when burnt. These masses
are extremely brittle, and difficult to deal with as mounted
objects for microscopic examination, but by saturating one
of them in warm turpentinej and subjecting it to pressure, I
was able to mount it as a transparent object in balsam.
The microscope then resolved it into a compacted mass of
agglutinated hairs mingled with cellular structure. Under
polarised light, the hairs exhibit the same appearance and
structure as the dark hairs of a Shetland cow, taken from
one of the rivlins, or Shetland shoes of untanned hide, in the
Museum, with which I have
compared them. From this I
infer that when the blade was
placed among the burnt bones
of its owner, it had not, like Fis- 5. -Gold Mounting of the

Handle of the Bronze Dagger

them, passed through the fire, f0imd at Coiiessie.

but had been deposited in its

sheath, as it used to be worn, the sheath being formed of

wood covered with cowhide, with the hair outwards. Close

by the blade was found the gold mounting of the butt-end of

10 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

its handle (Fig. 5). It is in the shape of a thin fillet nearly
| inch broad, and worked into an oblong mounting 1J inch
in length, and £ inch in the width of its opening. Its orna-
ment consists of four parallel longitudinal flutingsin repousst
work.

I have described this cairn and its associated burials
thus minutely, because it is the only cairn of the Bronze Age
which I have seen excavated. Many others have doubtless
been met with, but the instances in which the phenomena
of the burials and the features of the structure have been
specially investigated and placed on record are exceedingly
few, and the details are of the most meagre and unsatis-
factory description.

For instance, a great cairn, which is known by the name
of Cairn Greg, on the estate of Linlathen, in the parish of
Monifieth, in Forfarshire, was opened in 1834 by Mr. Erskine
of Linlathen, in presence of the late Lord Rutherfurd and
Mr. George Dundas, Advocate, and reopened in 1864 by
the late Dr. John Stuart and a number of other anti-
quaries. It affords a curious illustration of the difficulty of
obtaining full and precise information as to the most obvious
facts, that Dr. Stuart, who wrote two separate accounts of
this latter examination of the cairn,1 gives no hint of its
size ; and the nearest approach we obtain to an idea of its
actual dimensions is from a notice in the New Statistical
Account of Forfarshire, where it is described as " a large heap
of stones." Dr. Stuart was chiefly interested in the alleged
occurrence of a stone sculptured with the so-called "elephant"
symbol in connection with the cist which occupied the
centre of the cairn ; but this has been already referred to in
its proper connection,2 and has no bearing on the present

1 Proc. Soc. Anliq. Scot., vol. vi. p. 98, and Sculptured Stontt of
Scotland, vol. i.

* ScotUtnd in Early Chr'uftitm Times (Second Series), p. 181.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

investigation. The cairn is placed on a rising ground
commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country.
It covered a single burial, placed in the centre of the cairn,
upon the natural surface of the ground. It is proper to
state, however, that there is not on the record of the
investigation any indication that more burials than that in
the central cist were looked for, and it seems certain that
no part of the subsoil underneath the cairn would at that
time have been examined. The central cist was formed
of large slabs of freestone, covered by an enormous slab
measuring 7 feet in length by 4| in breadth, on which rested
another of still greater size
and weight. The interior of
the cist measured 4 ft. 10
inches in length by 2 ft. 9
inches in breadth, and 2 ft. 10
inches in depth." As in
the case of the Collessie cist,
its bottom seemed to be
paved with small water-worn
pebbles ; and when it was
first opened, in 1834, an urn
(Fig. 6) of the same form as
the Collessie example, but
smaller and more rudely
made, was found lying on
its side near the centre of the cist, on the south side, the
direction of the axis of the cist being nearly east and west.
The urn, which stands 7 inches high, is ornamented with a
rough scoring of zigzags round the upper and lower parts.
Near the west end of the cist was found a thin bronze
blade of triangular form (Fig. 7), bearing at the butt-end the
mark of the handle, and still retaining the three rivets
which fastened it, in the rivet-holes. There is no indication

Fig. 6.— Urn found in a Cist in the
centre of the Cairn at Linlathen
(7 inches in height).

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKs.

in the record from which it can be determined whether
the interment in the cist was that of a burnt or an unburnt
body, although the probability is that it was the latter.

In Cairn Greg we have thus a
repetition of certain special features
of the Collessie burials. There is the
interment in a cist set on the surface
of the ground and covered with an
enormous cairn of stones ; the inter-
ment is presumably unburnt, and
associated with a tall urn of the
same peculiar form ; and finally, we
have again the association with the
interment of a thin triangular bronze
blade fastened to the handle by rivets.
At Cleigh, near Lochnell, Argyll-
shire, there are the remains of a cairn
60 feet in diameter, from which the
stones had been removed to be util-
ised in modern farm-buildings. It
contained a central cist, which the
process of removal laid bare, and an
urn which was found in it asso-
ciated with the interment was given to a person living
in the neighbourhood as a visitor, and lost. There is no
record of the other phenomena of the interment. Near
it, however, another cairn was partially removed, so as to
expose the cist. It is not known whether an urn had
been associated with the burial in this cairn, but on clearing
out the open cist, Dr. Angus Smith was fortunate in finding
a beautiful bronze blade of this peculiar thin and triangular
form (Fig. 8), which had been unnoticed by the parties who
first opened the cist1 It measures 5 inches in length by

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., voL x. p. 84.

Fig. 7.— Bronze Dagger
(4| inches in length)
found in a Cist in
the Cairn at Lin-
lathen. (One of the
rivets is shown apart
from the Blade.)

BKONZE AGE BURIALS.

2 J inches broad at the base, arid is almost perfect in outline.
It bears the mark of the handle, with the usual lunation
in the middle of the butt-end, the terminal outline of the
haft being further marked on the blade by a double row
of punctulations impressed by a punch. The three rivets are
still in the rivet-holes, and have broad round heads.

In these two interments we have the same features
of cairn-burial, with a central cist, the interments being
accompanied by an urn, and by the special form of the thin
triangular blade of bronze fastened to the handle by rivets.

Fig. 8. — Bronze Dagger-blade,
from a Cist in a Cairn at
Cleigh (5 inches in length).

Fig. 9. — Bronze Dagger-blade found
in a Cist at Drumlanrick (4^
inches in length).

There is in the Museum another example of this typical
blade of bronze, which is said to have been found in a
cist at Drumlanrick, in Perthshire (Fig. 9). Unfortunately
no record of the circumstances of its discovery exists, but
it is a blade of precisely the same form and character
as those found associated with the interments that have

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

been already described. It measures 4J inches in length,
and the butt-end bears the mark of the handle to which
it has been attached by three rivets, two of which are still
in their places.

In clearing away a cairn on the farm of Callachally at
Glenforsa, in the island of Mull, two urns were found. No
record of the phenomena of the interments exists, but the
fragments of the urns and the two objects found with them
are preserved in the Museum. One of the urns (Fig. 10) was
of the same form as those from Collessie and Cairn Greg,
6 J inches high, and 6 inches wide at the mouth. It is orna-
mented with narrow parallel bands of zigzags and short
straight lines, the bauds passing transversely round the
circumference of the vessel. These narrow bands alternate

with broader bands of
a different variety of
ornamentation. They
are filled with a series
of acutely-pointed tri-
angular spaces, each
alternate triangle filled
with zigzag lines drawn
parallel to each other.
The lines forming the
long equal sides of the
triangles appear to have
been stamped with the
teeth of a comb. The
second urn was also of
the same form and
character, but differed

in the arrangement of its ornamentation. The lower part
is covered with scorings of zigzags, the upper having a band
of triangular spaces alternately plain and filled with parallel

Fig. 10.— Urn found at Glenforsa, Mull
(6j inches in height).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

lines. With the urns there were found the fragments of a
thin triangular bronze blade, and an implement, in polished
stone (Fig. 11), thin and rectangular in form, with slightly
rounded corners, and pierced by a small hole in the
middle of its breadth close to each end. It measures 3£
inches in length by 1J inch in breadth, and is formed
of a hard greenstone, symmetrically shaped and carefully
polished.

Fig. 11. — Wrist-guard of polished stone found with the Urn at Glenforsa.
Mull (3^ inches in length).

In this case we have again the same features of cairn-
burial, with the same form of urn, and the same thin, tri-
angular blade of bronze, but with an additional feature in
the occurrence of an implement of polished stone. The

Fig. 12. —Wrist-guard of polished Felstone found with an Urn at Fyrish.
Back and front Views. (4.^ inches in length.)

probable use of this implement is not directly suggested by
its form, and there is nothing in the circumstances of its

16 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

association in this instance which suffices to reveal its pur-
pose. But other implements of similar form and character
have been occasionally found in somewhat similar associa-
tions in Scotland, and instances have occurred in England,
which are directly suggestive of the probable purpose which
has been assigned to them.

One found at Fyrish, near Evanton, in lloss-shire, was
also associated with an urn accompanying an unburnt
burial. . The implement (Fig. 1 2) is formed of a hard, close-
grained greenish stone, finely polished, and perforated by a
small hole in each corner. It measures 4£ inches in length
by 1J inch in breadth, narrowing slightly in the middle,

Fig. 13.— Urn found at Fyrish, Evanton, Ross-shire (6 inches in height).

and curved in the cross-section. The urn (Fig. 13) with
which it was associated is 6 inches high, and ornamented by
bands of parallel lines and zigzags. It differs a little from
the tall variety, with slightly everted lip and bulging sides,
with which we have previously become acquainted. It is
thicker and coarser in texture, is almost as wide as it is
hi<zh, and though somewhat shorter in the upper part, is
bowl-shaped below, and tapers to a base of 3 inches.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 1 7

A similar implement of greenstone, found in a sepulchral
tumulus in Skye, measures 2J inches in length by If inch
in breadth. It is of the same form, convex on its upper
surface, and concave interiorly, finely polished, and orna-
mented at the ends with a border of slightly pitted ovals.

In 1821 a cist was discovered 8 feet under the apex of
a conical mound of sandy loam in the parish of Cruden,
Aberdeenshire. The cist was formed of slabs of gneiss,
and measured internally 4 feet 3 inches in length by 2 feet
2 inches in breadth, and 2 feet 2 inches deep. Its bottom was
the sandy soil of which the mound was composed, and its
cover was formed of a large rough slab of slaty rock and a
flattish block of granite. In the cist were two skeletons —
one of a full-grown man, the other of a child ; and with
them there were the remains of a dog. Besides these human
and animal remains, the cist also contained two urns, two
flint knives, seven arrow-heads of flint, and an implement of
polished greenstone of this special form, 4J inches long,
rounded on one face, hollow on the other, and pierced with
a small hole at each corner. In this case, the association of
this peculiarly formed stone object with seven arrow-heads
of flint is suggestive of its connection with the use of the
bow, and the fact that the bracers of bone, which in more
recent times were strapped on the left wrist to protect it from
the recoil of the bowstring, are curiously like these stone
objects in form and character, has given force to the suggestion.

In two instances in England, the stone implement has
been found actually in contact with the bones of the fore-arm.
In a grave-mound on Roundway Hill, near Devizes, such an
implement was found between the bones of the left fore-arm
of an unburnt human skeleton. It is a flat plate of chlorite
schist, 4| inches in length and If inch in breadth, finely
polished, and pierced by four small holes, countersunk on
both sides at the four corners. Along with it there were
2

1 8 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

also found associated with the burial a single arrow-head of
flint, and a thin bronze blade, with a tang for insertion in
the handle.

In a grave-mound at Kellythorpe, near Driffield, an imple-
ment of the same character was found lying on the bones of
the right fore-arm of an unbunit human skeleton, while
underneath the bones was a small bronze buckle, apparently
the fastening of the strap by which the implement had been
bound upon the wrist.1 It is similar in form to the others
which have been described, concave on the under side,
5 inches in length by 1 i inch in breadth, and having in the
four perforations four pins or rivets of bronze, with gold
heads. The other articles found associated with this burial
were a thin bronze dagger-blade with a wooden sheath and
a handle of wood, some amber beads, and an urn of the tall
variety, with thin and slightly everted lip and bulging sides,
which has been already described as occurring in association
with similar implements in Scotland.

It thus appears that these peculiar implements of polished
stone have been found in association with arrow-heads of
flint, and that, when found in the position in which they
were worn, they occupied the place on the right and left
fore-arm which the " bracer " would have occupied on the
fore-arm of a right-handed and a left-handed bowman. It
appears also that we have, in this series of burials, a set of
typical phenomena, consisting in the association of imple-
ments of stone with certain implements of metal — that metal
being bronze. The presence of this thin knife-like blade of
bronze among the grave goods of these interments is the most
distinctive of their peculiar characteristics. It separates the
burials in which it occurs, on the one hand from the typical
burials of the Iron Age, which have been already described,
and on the other hand from the typical burials of the Stone

1 Archceologia, xxxiv. 254, Plate xx. fig. 7, and xliii. 427.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 1 9

Age, which have yet to be described. It separates them
from the burials of the Iron Age, because it has never yet
been found either with implements of iron, or with objects
exhibiting the special forms or bearing the special decoration
of the Iron Age. It separates them from the burials of the
Stone Age because it is itself of bronze, and, though it is
often found in association with implements of stone, it brings
these stone implements and the burials with which they are
associated into the category of Bronze Age types.

Eeturning now to the further consideration of the series
of burials that are characterised by the presence among their
grave goods of a blade of bronze, we shall find the blade,
which is their characteristic feature, presenting occasional
differences of form and association. But whatever may be
the direction or the extent of these variations — whether its
form may be triangular, or oval, or disc-shaped ; whether it
may be attached to its handle by rivets or by a tang, or by
casting the handle in the metal itself, — the typical character-
istic of the implement is that it is always an instrument of
cutlery fashioned in bronze. It may be styled a dagger, a
knife, or a razor ; it may be associated with burnt or un-
burnt interments, and with urns of different varieties of
form; but its essential character and significance are con-
stant.

At Stobshiel, in Haddingtonshire, in 1881, an interment
after cremation was discovered, by the plough turning up the
broken bottom of an urn, inverted over a deposit of burnt
bones, among which there was found a portion of a thin flat
triangular blade of bronze, perforated at the base by two
rivet-holes. The urn (Fig. 14) is of a peculiar type, flower-
pot-shaped below, and widening upwards to about the middle
of its height, from which it contracts again towards the
brim. The ornamentation is confined to a narrow baud
underneath the brim, and consists simply of intersecting zig-

•Jo

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 14.— Urn found at Stobshiel, Haddingtonshire (14J inches in height).

Fig. 15.— Urn found at Shnttleneld (9 inches in height).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

zags. Two slightly projecting mouldings encircle the plain
part, and one forms a border immediately underneath the
ornamented rim. It measures 14| inches in height, the
width across the mouth being 10 J inches, across the widest
part in the middle 1 2 inches, and across the bottom 5 inches.
In April 1880 a chance passer-by observed a labourer
extracting bones from a hole in the brow of a sandy knoll
in a field at Shuttlefield, near Lockerbie. On inspecting the
place, he found that the man had discovered the site of a
cremated burial The burnt bones had been collected, and
placed in a shallow excavation in the sandy eminence, with
a large flowerpot-shaped urn of baked clay (Fig. 1 5) inverted
over them. The bottom of the urn had been so near the
surface that the plough had passed
through it, and the labourer's atten-
tion being attracted to the rounded
cavity which was thus disclosed, and
the curiosity of both aroused by the
fact that it contained a deposit of
burnt bones, a complete examination
of the place was made, and the re-
maining portion of the urn unearthed.
It was but 9 inches high, having been
originally perhaps 14 or 15 inches in
height, and 9 inches diameter at the
mouth. From its brim the sides are
nearly perpendicular for a depth of
about 4 inches, to a raised external
ridge, which passes transversely round
it at the junction of the perpendicular
part with the part where it begins to
slope towards the bottom. The sloping
part is plain, the upper part orna-
mented with irregularly placed oval indentations. Among

Fig. 16.— Bronze Blade
found in the Urn at
Shuttlefield (actual
size).

SCOTLAND IN J'AtJAX TIMKS.

the burnt bones which it protected, a small thin blade of
bronze (Fig. 16) was discovered. It is unfortunately broken,
but enough remains to show the special form and character
of the implement. In its tapering form, its thinness, and
the presence of a single rivet-hole at the base, it resembles
the blades which have been already described; but it
presents points of difference which are more characteristic
than these points of resemblance. Its outlines are oval
towards the base ; it is not flat, but swells in the centre to a
distinct longitudinal midrib, and it terminates at the butt-
end in a flattened tang-like prolongation, pierced by a central

rivet-hole. These features are sug-
gestive of a transition from a type
that is triangular, flat, and riveted
at the base, to a type that is oval in
outline, swelling in the middle, and
tanged at the base. Such a form
is not unfrequently found asso-
ciated with similar interments.

For instance, a plain oval blade
of bronze of the form here shown
(Fig. 17), thinning to the point end
and to the edges (as indicated by
the cross-section), and showing the
fracture of the tang which has been
broken off the thicker extremity,
was found among the incinerated
bones under an inverted urn which
had been placed about 3 feet under
the surface, near the outer margin
of a tumulus at Lierabol, in the Strath of Kildonan, Suther-
landshire. It measured about 2 inches in length by | inch
in its greatest breadth, and nowhere exceeds jv inch in
thickness.

ft
Fig. 17.

(1) Bronze Blade found in a

Tumulus at Lierabol,
Kildonan, Sutherland.

(2) Section across the blade

(actual size).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

A small oval tanged blade of bronze, which has not been
preserved, measuring 2f inches in length, by f inch in greatest
breadth, was found in
1862, in a grave-mound
of peculiar form at Bur-
reldales, in Aberdeen-
shire. The form of the
grave-mound (as shown
in the accompanying
ground - plan, Fig. 1 8)
was that of a circular
eminence, of low eleva-

. Fig. 18.— Diagrammatic Ground-plan of

tlOn, about 30 feet in Tumulus at Burreldales (not to scale).

diameter, with a depres-
sion in the centre, and surrounded at the distance of
about 12 feet from its base by a raised ring of lower
elevation, measuring altogether about 50 feet in diameter.
Two stones (marked 1 and 2 in the Plan) appeared in
the outer ring. One burial was found in the external ring
(marked 4), and two (marked 3 and 5) in the central mound.
The burials were of burnt bodies, the incinerated bones
deposited in urns. The blade was found with the burial
marked 5.

Sir John Clerk describes the excavation of a grave-
mound at Newbigging, near Penicuik, previous to 1725.
It contained three urns with incinerated bones, and in one
of the urns was found a small oval tanged bronze blade,
ornamented in the centre by an oval filled with chequers
of lozenge-shaped spaces alternately plain and filled with
cross-hatched lines.1

A similarly ornamented blade of the same form and

1 Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale (1726), p. 116, and Plate iv.
Fig. 8. The cairn is described in the Appendix to the Itinerarium, pp.
170 and 178.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

character was found about the year 1834 in a grave-
mound or cairn at Rogart, in Sutherlandshire. In the
centre of the cairn was a cist of slabs, and among the

Fig. 19.

(1) Bronze Blade found in a

Grave-mound at Rogart,
Sutherland (actual size).

(2) Section across the blade.

1.
Fig. 20.

(1) Bronze Blade found in a Cairn

at Balblair, Creich, Suther-
land (actual size).

(2) Section across the blade.

bones in the cist the blade (Fig. 19) was found. No urn
was observed by the persons who removed the cairn, and
the record does not state whether the bones were burnt or

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 25

unburnt. The blade is fortunately preserved, and, though
imperfect, is an instructive example of this peculiar variety
of the rarest of all forms of these bronze implements. The
tang measures nearly an inch in length, and what remains
of the blade 2£ inches in length by 1J inch in greatest
breadth. A border of punctulations surrounds the central
oval, which is ornamented by lozenge-shaped spaces alter-
nately plain and filled with fine lines crossing each other
obliquely.

About the year 1848, a crofter at Balblair, in the parish of
Creich, Sutherlandshire, removing stones from a cairn for
agricultural purposes, discovered a coarsely-made urn of
considerable size inverted over a deposit of burnt bones
upon a flat stone.1 He removed the urn, but as his wife
refused to admit the " uncanny " thing within the door of
their dwelling, it was set outside on an adjoining knoll, and
became a mark at which the passing schoolboys exercised
their skill in stone-throwing until it was smashed to pieces.
Among the bones covered by the urn there was found a
small bronze blade (Fig. 20), so thin that it suffered a good
deal from rough handling.2 In its imperfect condition it
measures 4| inches in length by 1^ inch in greatest breadth.
It is, or rather has been, of an oval, pointed form, with a tang
at one end about an inch in length, for insertion in the handle.
The middle portion of the blade is raised, and ornamented in
the centre of the oval raised portion by lines crossing each
other diagonally. The marginal segments are broad, flat,
and thin, running to an edge of extreme tenuity and sharp-
ness. From their oval shape, their wide thin margins, and
uniform sharpness of edge all round, these blades are

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. vii. p. 475.

2 This blade, and those found at Rogart and Lierabol, are preserved
in the Duke of Sutherland's Museum at Dunrobin. — Proc. Soc, Antiq.
Scot., vol. x. p. 431.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

obviously more of the nature of implements than weapons,
although it is as obviously impossible to specialise their
purpose more closely.

Fig. 21. — Three tanged Blades of Bronze fonnd at Bowerhouses, Dunbar
(one-half actual size).

Sometime about the year 1822, in the course of levelling
ground at Bowerhouses, near Dunbar, two urns of consider-
able size, one of them being nearly a foot and a half in
height, were discovered in a tumulus,
with deposits of burnt bones. No
details of the phenomena exist, and it
is uncertain whether the four bronze
objects found were associated with one
or more of the burials. They are
vaguely stated to have been found " in
two urns, mixed with burnt bones."
One of these four articles is a bronze
socketed axe-head. The other three
are thin oval tanged blades (Fig. 21),
differing from those previously de-
scribed, by their truncated form at the
butt-end, and the bifid termination at
the free end. Two of them are pierced with small holes
immediately below the junction of the bifid points.

Fig. 22.— Bronze Blade
found in the Shannon
(one-half actual size).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

As these blades are much broken, I place with them for
comparison a perfect blade (Fig. 22), of the same bifid form
and character, possessing a similar perforation, and bearing
on its raised midrib a triply repeated ornament of concentric
circles. It was found in Ireland in the bed of the Shannon.

Fig. 23. — Bronze Blade found at Kinleitb, Currie, near Edinburgh
(actual size).

A larger and more elaborately constructed disc-shaped
blade of this bifid character (Fig. 23), having its handle cast
in the same piece with the blade, was found in gravel near
the bed of the Water of Leith, at Kinleith, near Currie, in
Midlothian, in 1863, and is now in the National Museum.
It has a loop at the free end of the handle, and is both

28 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

larger and of stronger make than any of the other speci-
mens. This blade was not found in association with an
interment, but it is clearly of the same character as those
that have been described, and it is the only example known
in Scotland, which has not been found in connection with a
burial.1

Though numerous casual discoveries of single interments
of the character of those that have now been described may
have given rise to the opinion that they are usually found
as isolated examples, it requires the negative evidence of an
exhaustive examination of each separate site to warrant the
conclusion that the casually discovered grave is not one
of a group. Where such exhaustive investigations have
been made, it has usually been found that the site of the
casually discovered interment is really a cemetery. In
point of fact, the gregariousness of these cremation burials
is one of their most striking characteristics, implying the
use of the site as a family or tribal buryiug-ground over
a long period of time. These cremation cemeteries are
often unmarked by any external sign, but they are usually
placed on a natural knoll with an open gravelly subsoil, or
they are found spread over the summit of a hillock of sand

Such a cemetery was discovered a few months ago in
excavating a sand-pit at Magdalen Bridge, Midlothian,
between Joppa and Musselburgh. The site was close to the
shore of the Firth of Forth, and the surface level of the
ground not more than 1 4 feet above high-water mark. Of
the nine or ten urns that were discovered, seven are now
reconstructed, and placed in the National Museum. The
typical interment had associated with it a thin bronze blade

1 Similar curved, disc-shaped or crescent-shaped blades have been
found in France, Switzerland, and Italy. They have been supposed to
be razors by some of the continental archaeologists. The continental
examples appear to belong to the later portion of the Bronze Age, and, in
some instances at least, to the early Iron Age.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

(Fig. 24), of the oval tanged form which has been already
described, the centre ornamented with a series of lozenge-
shaped spaces alternately plain
and filled with parallel lines.
The blade was found among the
burnt bones enclosed within the
urn, but little care was taken
by the workmen, either to pre-
serve such a fragile article from
rough handling, or to notice the
special circumstances of the sep-
arate interments. The urn in
which the blade was found (Fig.
25) measures 12 inches in
height and 9| inches across
the mouth. The lower part is
flowerpot-shaped, and plain,
encircled by a slightly raised
and rounded moulding at about
two-thirds of its height from
the bottom. A similar mould-
ing separates the ornamented
band underneath the brim from

the plain part below it. The upper part, which alone is
ornamented, narrows slightly from the moulding to the brim.
The ornamentation impressed in the clay when it was soft is
peculiarly arranged in a broad band divided into panels or
spaces, bordered above and below by three parallel lines, and
separated from each other by four vertical lines. These
spaces are filled with different arrangements of parallel lines,
forming different patterns of zigzags, or lines crossing each
other obliquely. The interior of the rim is also ornamented
by oblique lines.

The second \irn (Fig. 26), which is similar in form, slightly

Fig. 24. — Bronze Blade found
in an Urn at Magdalen
Bridge, near Musselburgh
(actual size).

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM! >.

narrowing to the brim from the upper of the two mould-
ings, is also similar in the character and arrangement of its
ornamentation. It is the largest of the urns found in this
cemetery, measuring 16 inches in height, by 12£ inches in
diameter across the mouth.

Fig. 25. — Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (12 inches in height).

The third urn (Fig. 27), which is of the same peculiar form,
having the lower part flowerpot-shaped, and narrowing to
the brim from its greatest diameter upwards, is surrounded
by three mouldings, and the ornament consists of a simple
band of intercrossing zigzags. It resembles the two pre-
viously described in having the interior of the rim orna-
mented by oblique lines. It is also remarkable for its great

BKONZE AGE BURIALS.

width in proportion to its height. It measures 13 inches
high, and 14 inches in its greatest diameter at the shoulder,
narrowing to 1 1 inches diameter across the mouth.

Fig. 26. — Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (16 inches in height).

The fourth urn (Fig. 28) is smaller, and resembles the
previous three in its contraction, both upwards and down-
wards, from its greatest width, which in this case is about

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

the middle of its height. Above this it contracts gracefully
in two stages with reversing curves, the slightly everted rim
answering to the mouldings below. The ornamentation is
disposed in two bands, separated by a boldly rounded
moulding. The lower band contains a series of intercrossing
zigzags, separated from the plain space below by a line of

Fig. 27.— Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (13 inches in height).

punctulations, and the upper band contains the peculiar
pattern known as "herring-bone." The lines are deeply
impressed in the clay by an implement notched or toothed
like a comb. This is the smallest of the urns found in this
cemetery. It measures 10 J inches in height, and 7$ inches
across the mouth.

The fifth urn (Fig. 29) is of the same shape, narrowing

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

upwards and downwards from the shoulder, but it differs
from the previous four in having a deep overhanging brim,
and presents no mouldings. The ornamentation is confined
to the part above the shoulder, and consists of oblique
parallel lines on the band underneath the rim, and on the
rim itself a band of triangular spaces each filled with oblique
lines. The interior of the rim has a triplet of lines drawn

Fig. 28.— Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (10£ inches in height).

round the sloping margin. The vessel measures 12 £ inches
high by 9 inches in diameter.

The sixth urn (Fig. 30) is of the same form, and orna-
mented in much the same manner, except that the band
below the overhanging rim consists of intercrossing zigzags,
and the ornamentation of the interior of the brim is a con-
tinuous zigzag. It measures 12 inches high, and 8| inches
diameter across the mouth.
3

SCOTLAND IX 1'ACJAX TIMK.S.

The seventh urn (Fig. 31) differs in shape from all the
others. It is widest at the mouth, tapering gradually to the
base. Its ornamentation consists of a narrow band of
zigzags of four parallel lines round the exterior rim, and
underneath this ornamented band two slightly raised and
rounded mouldings encircle the plain part of the vessel. It

Fig. 29.— Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (12 J inches in height).

measures 13f inches in height, and 10 inches across the
mouth.

Fragments of other two urns of the same general character
were subsequently brought to the Museum from the same
place, and besides the cremated burials accompanied by
cinerary urns, there were also discovered a burial, unburnt, in
a cist of stones, and another unburnt burial simply deposited

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

in the soil without any cist. A small urn, 3 or 4 inches
high, was also reported by the workmen, but it was said to
have crumbled to fragments, and the fragments were not
seen by any one capable of describing them.

The presence of the bronze blade found in connection
with the urn first described, and the occurrence of a minute

Fig. 30. — Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (12 inches in height).

fragment of the metal with a green stain, characteristic of
the presence of bronze, upon the bones found in another urn,
establish the fact that the interments in this cemetery are
interments of the same age and condition of culture as those
that have been previously described. The phenomena are
not the same in every case, but there is a sufficient family

36 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

likeness between the groups to warrant us in concluding
that they cannot be far apart in time, or widely separated in
the scale of culture. The form of the urns is the same, their
ornamentation is of similar character, the burial customs are
similar, and the associated objects are identical in form and
character.

Fig. 31.— Urn found at Magdalen Bridge (13f inches in height).

The same conclusions may be drawn from the phenomena
of a remarkable cremation cemetery which was discovered
some years ago at Lawpark, near St. Andrews. About twenty
urns of this cinerary type were obtained from it, varying in
size from 10 to 16 inches in height, and from 8 to 11 inches

BRONZE AGE BUKIALS.

in diameter. Two small oval tanged bronze blades which
were found among the burnt bones are preserved in the
University Museum at St. Andrews.

Recently, at Shanwell, near Milnathort, Kinross-shire, the
excavation of a gravelly knoll disclosed a considerable
number of burials pertaining to an ancient Bronze Age
cemetery, of the same character as those at Magdalen
Bridge in Midlothian, and Lawpark, near St. Andrews.

Fig. 32.-- Urn found at Shanwell (14 inches in height).

The deposits were burials after cremation, mostly unpro-
tected by cists, but accompanied by urns of the same form
and character as those found in the two cemeteries which
have been previously described. One of the urns (Fig. 32),
which is now in the Museum, measures 1 4 inches in height,
and nearly the same in diameter at the mouth. It is
ornamented round the brim by a series of impressed lines

38 SCOTLAND IS PAGAN TIMES.

of twisted cord, arranged in opposing triangles with plain
lozenge-shaped spaces between. It also presents the feature,
so common in these large cinerary urns, of a double raised
moulding passing round the vessel underneath the orna-
mented brim. Among the burnt bones of one of the
deposits there was found a fine specimen of the thin oval

Fig. 33. Bronze Blade found with the Urns at Shanwell— lx>th side*
and section across centre (actual size).

bronze blade (Fig. 33), beautifully ornamented on both sides
with an engraved pattern of lozenge-shaped chequers within
a border surrounding the central portion of the blade. It
measures 3A inches in length, and 1 inches in greatest width,

BRONZE AGE BUKIALS. 39

and differs from the Sutherlandshire blades in having a
broad flat tang pierced by a central rivet-hole. With another
of the deposits a small quadrangular whetstone, similar to
that found at Stenton,1 was also discovered.

Looking to the fact that these bronze blades are so often
found associated with this typical form of urn, and consider-
ing that out of so many instances of the occurrence of this
form of urn in the same cemeteiy, only one or two present
the distinctive feature of the associated blade which attri-
butes them to the Bronze Age, it seems a fair inference that
the form of the urn alone, without the presence of the blade,
may be to a certain extent accepted as evidence of the period
to which the interment falls to be assigned. No such urn
has ever been found associated with implements of iron, or
with objects bearing the characteristic ornamentation of the
Iron Age. They are often associated with bronze, and if the
absence of bronze from the interment may in some cases be
taken to mean the presence among the living of a condition
of culture in which the use of metals was unknown, it would
obviously be unscientific to conclude that this must neces-
sarily have been the case in every such instance. We know
that this form of urn belongs to the Bronze Age, and we shall
continue to speak of it as a Bronze Age form in describing
other instances of its occurrence in which no bronze has been
found with it.

In 1878, Mr. Bell, the tenant of the farm of Sheriff-flats,
near Thankerton, in Lanarkshire, discovered the remains of a
cremation cemetery on the summit of a gravelly knoll near
the bank of the Clyde. A large part of the knoll had been
previously removed, probably at the time when the neigh-
bouring road was made, and what was left undisturbed was
merely a portion of its original area. Mr. Bell found three
urns, and a few days afterwards I visited the spot, when

1 See the figure of the Stenton whetstone (Fig. 116), p. 93.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

three more were found. The largest entire urn (Fig. 34)
is of the some form as that last described from Magdalen
Bridge (see Fig. 31), being widest at the mouth, and tapering
gradually to the bottom. Its decoration is also similarly
confined to a narrow band round the exterior of the rim, and
it presents the same feature of two mouldings encircling the

Fig. 34.— Urn found at Sheriff-flats (13 inches in height).

part of the uni below the ornamented band.^ The ornamenta-
tion is a series of intercrossing zigzags, the lines of which
are not straight, but slightly curved, and appear as if feebly
drawn by an unsteady hand. The inside of the lip is
ornamented in a similar manner. The urn measures 13
inches in height, and 12 inches in diameter across thejmouth.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

The second urn (Fig. 35), which must have been of larger
size, but is now unfortunately incomplete, is of the same
form as the majority of the Magdalen Bridge urns, narrow-
ing upwards as well as downwards from the shoulder, the
outlines gracefully formed in reversing curves. One mould-
ing remains, and the ornamentation has been entirely of
groups of obliquely crossed lines.

Fig. 35.— Urn found at Sheriff-Hats (12A inches in height).

The third urn (Fig. 36), which is much smaller, also
narrows from the shoulder both upwards and downwards.
It is encircled by two mouldings close together at the
shoulder, and the ornamentation consists of. a series of
horizontal lines of impressed markings, as with the teeth of
a comb, encircling the body of the urn about half an inch
apart. This urn, which is 5f inches high, and 5J inches

I-J

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

in diameter at the mouth, was found in a cist formed of
four flat stones, with a fifth placed over them for a cover.

Fig. 36. — Uru found at Sheriff-flats
(5j inches in height).

Fig. 37.— L'ru found at Sheriff-flats
(5 inches in height).

The fourth urn (Fig. 37) is of the same typical form, but
more rudely made. The upper part is encircled by a double

moulding underneath
the rim, and the ex-
terior surface is rudely
scored over with cross-
in- zigzags. It was
found in fragments at
a depth of 3i feet
from the surface. As
now reconstructed, it
measures 5 inches in
height, and nearly the
same in diameter at
the mouth.

Fig. 88.— Um found at Sheriff-flats
(6 inches in height).

The fifth urn (Fig.
38) has much resem-
blance to the fourth, but is thinner and better-made. Its

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 43

exterior is perfectly plain, except that it is surrounded by
a series of mouldings immediately underneath the brim.
It was found at one side of a deposit of burnt bones from
3 to 4 inches in thickness, placed about 2 feet under the
surface, and covering an area of about 15 to 18 inches in
diameter. It lay partly upon the bones, and was nearly
filled with them, though it could not have contained any-
thing like the quantity composing the deposit. It measures
6 inches in height, and nearly the same in diameter at
the mouth.

Close beside it, among the heap of bones, lay a small cup-
shaped urn 2 1 inches high (Fig. 39). This tiny cup-shaped
vessel is a characteristic re-
presentative of a class of urns
which are of comparatively
rare occurrence, and are never
found alone, but always in
association with a larger urn ;
frequently indeed the smaller
vessel has been found de-
posited within the larger. Fig. 39.

For instance, on the glebe Sma11 Urn found at sheriff-flats

(2| inches in height).

at Blairgowrie, in 1878, a

large urn, measuring about 12 inches high, and the same
in diameter at the mouth, was discovered in the gravel, at a
depth of about 2 feet under the surface. The urn had been
covered with a large stone, and was broken into fragments,
which were not preserved. But among the bones which it
contained there was found a tiny cup-shaped urn (Fig. 40),
If inch high, and contracting slightly upwards and down-
wards from the shoulder.1

At Barnfauld, Threepwood, in the parish of Beith, Ayr-
shire,2 a small cup-shaped urn (Fig. 41), 2 inches in height

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. xii. p. 624. 2 Ibid. 685.

SCOTLAND IN I '.\ii.\X TIMKS.

and 2£ inches diameter across the mouth, was found about
1804 within a larger urn, which was not preserved, but is
described as having a capacity of about six gallons. This
vessel differs from the two that have been already described,

Fig. 40. — Small Urn found within
a larger Urn at Blairgowrie
(1} inch in height).

Fig. 41.— Small Urn found
at Barnfauld, Threepwood
(2 inches in height).

inasmuch as it presents on one side two small perforations
passing completely through the clay, and less than half an
inch apart.

Fig. 42.— Urn found in a Ciner-
ary Urn at Wester Buck-
lyvie (2$ inches in height).

Fig. 43.— Under part of the
Urn, highly ornamented.

At Wester Bucklyvie, in Fife, in 1866, a large clay urn
was discovered in ploughing. It was about 15 inches in
height, narrowing upwards and downwards from the shoulder.
It stood inverted over a deposit of burnt bones, among which
a very small urn (Figs. 42 and 43) was discovered, 3 inches
in diameter, and 2| inches high. It contained a compacted

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 45

mass of ashes and burnt bones of very small size, which were
determined from the presence of a milk molar to be those of
an infant. The natural inference is that the bones in the
larger urn were those of the mother of the child.

At Genoch, in the parish of Straiten, in Ayrshire, a crema-
tion cemetery was discovered, and removed in levelling ground
for the foundation of a dwelling-house. A considerable
number of urns, "probably about a dozen," were met with
and destroyed. They all contained burnt bones and ashes.
One small vessel only was preserved (Fig. 44). It presents

Fig. 44.— Small Urn found at Genoch, Ayrshire, and its Cover.
(Urn 3 inches in height.)

the peculiarity of being furnished with a lid or cover, also
formed of clay. It was found among the burnt bones
within a large cinerary urn, and, according to the statement
of an eye-witness, " the lid was on it when found." It
measures 3 inches in height, 3 inches diameter at the
mouth, and 2| inches at the base, widening to about 5 inches
in extreme width at the shoulder. It is pierced by two
small holes on one side about If inch apart. Its lid or
cover is a flat circular disc of clay, 3^ inches diameter,
thoroughly burnt, and perforated by a small hole in the
centre. The ornamentation of the urn consists of three

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM I .>.

Fig. 45. — Small Urn found at Craigdhu,
North Queensferry (2 inches in height).

groups of encircling parallel lines, — a group of four imme-
diately underneath the rim, a group of six encircling th»-

shoulder, and a group of
four immediately al K>\ < •
the base.1

In one case, at Craig-
dhu, near North Queens-
ferry, the smaller urn
(Fig. 45) assumes the
form of a diminutive
copy of the larger ciner-
ary urn. This example
was found within a large
urn, about 12 inches
diameter, enclosed in a
cist in the centre of a

cairn of considerable size. A fragment only of the larger
urn has been preserved. It shows a band of raised zigzag
ornamentation underneath the rim, and the surface covered
with circular impressions made in the soft clay as if with
the end of a twig. The small urn itself (which is here
figured of the full size) is but 2 inches high, and the same
in diameter at the mouth.

It thus appears that this small variety of cup-shaped urn
differs from those larger urns with which it is associated
only in respect of the smallness of its size. The form of the
larger urn with which it is always found associated is the
cinerary form which accompanies burials after cremation.
It appears also that in all cases in which the position of the
small urn with respect to the larger urn has been ascer-
tained, the smaller vessel is invariably found within the

1 " Ancient Urns found in the Cairns and Barrows of Ayrshire," by
James Macdonald, LL.D. ; published in the Archaeological and Historical
Collections of the Ayr and Wigtown Archaeological Association, vol. i. p. 43.

BKONZE AGE BUKIALS.

larger, and that where the contents of the smaller vessel
have been determined they have been found to be the
cremated bones of an infant.

Fig. 46.— Small Urns found on Benachie (3 inches diameter).

Their most curious feature is the frequent presence of
two or four small holes pierced through one or both sides.
Of two examples (Fig. 46) found more than sixty years ago
in a cairn on Benachie, in Aberdeenshire, one is 3 inches in
diameter at the base where it is widest, tapers upwards to
2 inches diameter at the mouth, and is pierced at the widest

Fig. 47. — Small cup-shaped Clay Urns, from South Ronaldsay, Dunbar,
and Old Pendrith.

part by two pairs of small holes on opposite sides ; while the
other, which is wider than it is high, is 3 inches in diameter

48 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

and 2 inches in height, and pierced only by two holes on one
side.

Of the three here shown (Fig. 47), the one to the left, which
comes from South Ronaldsay, Orkney, is pierced by two
pairs of small holes in its opposite sides ; the one to the front,
which was found near Dunbar, is pierced by one pair of holes
in one side only ; and the one to the right, which was found
at Old Pendrith, in Cumberland, is also pierced by one pair
of holes only. They are frequently found in England, and

occasionally also in Ire-
land. One Irish example
in the Museum is remark-
able for the extraordinary
development of this special
feature — the piercing of
the sides (Fig. 48). It was
found at Killucken, county
Pi*. 48. -Small Urn found at Killucken, Tyrone, within a large

Tyrone, Ireland.

and finely ornamented urn,

which measured 14 inches in height, and 10£ inches in
diameter across the mouth. The large urn was inverted
over a deposit of calcined bones, among which the smaller
vessel was discovered. It measures 3 inches in greatest
diameter and 2 inches in height.

I now proceed to notice other burials, or groups of burials,
exhibiting the same characteristic phenomena, accompanied
by other varieties of associated objects.

At Dalmore, near Alness in Ross-shire, a group of burials
was discovered in making a branch railway in 1878.1 It
consisted of ten interments, in cists of flat stones set in the
gravel, and each covered by one or more slabs. Two of them
contained implements of bronze. In the first example the
cist was only 20 inches under the surface. It was 18 inches

1 Described by Mr. W. Jolly in Proc. tfoc. Antig. Scot., vol. xiii. p. 256.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

long, 9 inches broad, and 12 inches deep. In the bottom
was a layer of burnt bones 2 inches thick, among which was

Fig. 49. — Bronze tanged Blade (actualize).

found the bent and broken butt-end of a tanged blade of
bronze (Fig. 49), which had apparently passed through the
fire. The second grave presented similar phenomena, with

Fig. 50. — Urn found at Dalmore, Alness (13£ inches in height).

this variation, that the implement associated with the burnt
bones was a fragment of a slender cylindrical stem or pin of
bronze. In several of the other graves, although no bronze
4

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

?. 51. — Hollow Cylinder of
Bone found in the Urn
(actual size).

was actually found, its presence was determined by the
peculiar greenish tinge of its oxide imparted to the bones
with which it had lain in contact Two of the remaining
interments presented special features. One was enclosed in
a circular construction of stones, built like a wall, and

covered with a flat stone 2 feet
3 inches under the surface. It
contained an urn (Fig. 50) inverted
on a round flat slab of mica schist
about 16 inches diameter and
2£ inches thick. The urn was
12 inches diameter at the rim,
13 \ inches high, and 5 inches across the bottom. It is orna-
mented with slips of moulded clay implanted on the rim,
which is perforated by several circular holes about half an

inch in diameter. Among the
bones covered by the inverted
urn there was found an object of
bone (Fig. 51), in the form of
a small hollow cylinder nearly
an inch in length, pierced on
one side by two small eyelets
nearly close together. Objects
of this description have been
occasionally found with crem-
ated interments in England, and
it has been suggested that they
may have been used as dress-
fasteners or buttons.

One burial of the ten was
unburnt It was at a much
greater depth than the ethers,
being 8 feet under the surface. The cist was only 2 feet
6 inches in length by 20 inches in breadth, and con-

Pig. 52.- Flint Knife (4 inches
in length).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

sequently the body when placed in it must have been
bent nearly double. There had been deposited with it
a fine leaf -shaped knife of chipped flint (Fig. 52) 4 inches in
length by an inch in breadth, and varying in thickness from
£ to | inch ; a string of fifty beads, narrow sections of a
cylinder, of a jet-like
mineral (Fig. 53), and a
polished stone wrist-guard
(Fig. 54) of the same

. , . Fig. 53. — Beads of a jet-like substance

character as those previ- (actual size).

ously described. It does

not differ from them, except that it has one of its ends

broken, and subsequently ground smooth. The two holes

in the end that remains entire are counter-sunk on one

side, as is usual in these objects. In section it is concave

Fig. 54.— Stone Wrist-guard (actual size).

on one side, convex on the other, and measures nearly
If inch in length, by 1^ inch in greatest width, and about
-j^ths of an inch in thickness.

On the farm of Balcalk, in the parish of Tealing, Forfar-
shire,1 two cists were found within a short distance of each
other in 1880. The first contained only the fragments of an
urn, along with an unburnt interment. The second cist
measured 3 feet 2 inches in length, by 2 feet wide and

1 "Notice of a Jet Necklace," etc., by John Sturrock, F.S.A. Scot., in
Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. xiv. p. 260.

52 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

2 feet deep. It contained the remains of an unburut
skeleton. Behind the right shoulder was an urn (Fig. 55),
5$ inches high, 6 inches in its greatest diameter, ornamented
with transverse parallel bands of impressions of twisted cord,
including between them zigzags of the same character. The
urn stood upright, and immediately under it, and in contact
with it, were a small triangular flint knife (Fig. 56) and a
bronze pin (Fig. 57). In contact with the neck and upper

Figs. 55, 56, 57.— Urn, Flint Knife, and Bronze Pin from the Cist at
Balcalk. (Urn 5J inches in height.)

part of the shoulders were the beads and plates of a neck-
lace of jet or cannel coal (Fig. 58), 147 in number. The
surfaces of the plates are decorated with lozenge-shaped
patterns of closely set punctulations drilled with a fine
point These patterns have much of the same character as
those that are found hatched upon the surfaces of the bronze
blades that have been already described. This interment
differs from most of the others in being uiiburnt, and the urn
also differs on that account from the large cinerary urns
found with burnt interments. Its special feature is the
occurrence of the necklace of jet beads and plates ; and we

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 53

find this special feature associated with the presence of
bronze. There are in the Museum portions of a similar
necklace of jet beads and plates, consisting of thirteen oblong

Fig. 58. — Necklace of Jet Beads and Plates lonnd in the Cist at Balcalk.

beads and eight plates, three of which are triangular, the
rest rhomboidal, found with fragments of an urn of similar
character, two beads of amber, and a small fragment of thin
bronze, in a cist occupying the centre of a small cairn about

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

23 feet in diameter on the farm of Blindmill at Rothie,
Aberdeenshire. The plates are perforated for three rows of
beads to be inserted between them.

At Lunanhead, near Forfar, in 1877, a small cemetery
of cists was broken into in excavating a gravel-pit for road-
making. In one of the cists, which seemed to have con-
tained an unburnt interment, a necklace of jet beads was
found,1 of which six of the plates and seventy-two beads
were recovered, and are now in the Museum. As in the
Balcalk necklace, the plates are ornamented with punctula-
tions arranged in lozenge-shaped spaces between borders of

punctulations, and are pierced
transversely for four, five, and
nine rows of beads in the
interspaces. In another cist,
which also contained an un-
burnt interment, there was
found an urn (Fig. 59) of
the same bowl-shaped form,
6 inches in diameter and
5 inches high. With it there
was also a broad knife-like
flake of flint about 2£ inches in length, by 1J inch in
breadth.

At Tayfield, near Newport, in Fife, in 1870, a necklace
of jet beads and plates (Fig. 60), of which eight plates and
thirty-nine beads were recovered, was found in a cist 2 feet
10 inches in length, 2 feet 3 inches in width, and about 18
inches in depth, which was discovered in a gravel-pit about
15 inches under the surface, covered over with two rough
slabs of stone.2 There was an urn in the cist, which was

1 " Notice of two Cists," etc., by William Galloway, ID Proc. Soc.
Antiq. Scot., vol. xii. p. 288.
1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., voL viii p. 411.

Fig. 59. —Urn found in a Cist at
Lunanhead (5 inches in height.)

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

recovered in fragments. It does not appear on the record
whether the interment was burnt or unburnt. The form of
the urn would have determined this question, but the frag-
ments were not preserved. The necklace exhibits the same
general form as is seen in that found at Balcalk, and the

Fig. 60.— Necklace of Beads and Plates of Jet found at Tayfield.

plates are pierced for seven beads in the central space, and
four in the two side-spaces.

Another necklace of this character (Fig. 61), found in a
cist at Torish, near Helmsdale, in Sutherlandshire, exhibits
the same arrangement of the beads and plates, with similar
ornamentation, but differing in the pattern, which in this
case consists of triangular instead of lozenge-shaped spaces,
alternately plain and punctulated. Xo trace of bones and
no fragments of an accompanying urn were found when the

56 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

contents of the cist (which had been thrown out by some
boys) were examined some days afterwards by Rev. Dr. Joass,
but fragments of charcoal, an arrow-head of chert, and part
of a spear-head of yellow flint, were found among the ejected
materials.1 This necklace is figured, as restored, from a
drawing by Rev. J. Joass, LL.D., Golspie. The plates marked
a e and e were entire, portions of b and d only were found,
and / is restored from its corresponding plate a.

Fig. 61.— Necklace of Beads and Plates of Jet found in a Cist at Torish,
Sutherlandshire.

In other interments, in which the phenomena are in the
main similar to the group of phenomena which we have traced
through the whole series of burials that have now been de-
scribed, we find the presence of personal ornaments of bronze
and gold constituting the most striking feature of the deposit.
The recorded instances of their occurrence are few, but in
such cases the intrinsic value of the objects presents a temp-
tation to their concealment, which does not operate in regard
to objects less valuable in themselves.

In making a road at Mel fort, Argyllshire, recently, two
cists were discovered. Nothing was observed in the one,

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. viii. p. 409.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 57

but in the other there were discovered the beads and
plates of a necklace of jet similar to those which have been
already described. Along with the necklace of jet, how-
ever, there were also two bracelets of bronze, thin and well
made, ornamented with parallel lines punched in the outer
surface of the metal, and a band of lozenge-shaped ornaments
hammered up from the inside. Unfortunately one of the
bracelets was broken to pieces, the metal being thin and

Fig. 62. — Bronze Bracelet (one of a pair) found with a Necklace of Jet
in a Cist at Melfort (actual size).

brittle from oxidation ; but the other (Fig. 62) shows per-
fectly the form and ornamentation of both.

In making a new road in the neighbourhood of Stobo
Castle in 1855, a cremated interment was discovered in what
seems to have been a small cairn. There was no urn
observed, but the deposit was not carefully examined, and
the only things that seem to have attracted attention were
the burnt bones which lay under a large boulder, and two
bronze rings (one of which is shown in Fig. 63), which lay
above it. The rings, which, bent to a circular shape, are well

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

adapted for being worn on a small wrist, are formed of a bar
of bronze flattened on the inside and ovally convex on the
outer side, the ends meeting together, but unjoined. The

Fig. 63.— Bronze Bracelet fount! with a cremated burial at Stobo, Peeblessbire
(3} inches diameter).

internal diameter of each of the rings is 2| inches, and the

greatest thickness f inch.

In excavating a cairn

in the parish of Crawford,
Lanarkshire, in 1850, an
urn of the tall form (Fig.
64), with thin everted lip
and bulging sides, was
found, with an unbunit
body, in a cist in the
centre of the cairn. The
urn, which is 6 inches high,
and 5J inches in diameter,
is highly ornamented. With
it there was found a bronze
ring (Fig. 65) of the same
peculiar character as that

Fig. 64.— Urn found in a Cist in a Cairn
in the Parish of Crawford, Lanark-
shire (6 inches in height).

terment.1

found with the Stobo in-
The ring measures 2J inches diameter, and is

1 In the account of this interment in the Archaeological Association's
Journal, vol. xvii. p. 110, a spear-head of bronze is said to have been

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

apparently formed of a bar of bronze bent to a circular form,
and slightly flattened on the inner side ; the junction of the

Fig. 65.— Bronze Ring found with the Urn (3 inches in diameter).

ends, however, is imperceptible, and the whole surface is
covered with a dense lustrous patina.

"-55i*?v»- v v7iT'*~~>>*~-"~^rvs'»sfc<*S

^^^^^^^^

Fig. 66. — Urn found with Bronze Rings at Kinneff.

Again, in 1831, in trenching ground near the Castle of
Kinneff, in Kincardineshire, a pair of bronze rings, similar in

found with it. It may have been found iu the cairn, but its condition and
patina are quite different from those of the ring.

60 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

form and construction to those that have now been described,
were found in association with an unburnt burial, accom-
panied by an urn (Fig. 66) of the low wide-mouthed form
which is usually associated with burials unburnt. The rings
(one of which is shown, Fig. 67) are circular, nearly cylindrical

Fig. 67.— Bronze Ring (one of a pair) found with the Urn at Kinneft
(3 inches in diameter).

in section, but slightly flattened on the inner circumference,
and the ends fit closely together without being joined. As
in the previous case, it was said that a bronze spear-head,
which was sent to the Museum with them, had been found
at the same time and in the same place, but its condition and
patina do not correspond with the condition and patina of
the rings, and the probability is that it was not associated
with the burial deposit.

There is in the Museum a portion of another bronze ring,
apparently of the same character, which was found with an
urn of the same form, wide-mouthed and thick-lipped, at
Rntho, in Midlothian. Some other fragments of bronze,
among which is the pin of a fibula of Iron- Age form, are said
to have been found with them, but there is no distinct or
detailed record of the phenomena observed at the time of

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

the discovery, and the association may not have been due to
the original circumstances of the deposit.

I now proceed to notice a series of burials in which the
presence of massive and costly ornaments of gold is the most
prominent feature.1

Some time before 1828 a very remarkable burial was dis-
covered on the estate of the Earl of Fife, near Duff House,
in Banffshire. There are no details of the phenomena of
the interment, but the articles found with it have been
preserved in the National Museum. They consist of an urn
of clay, five penannular rings of solid gold, and two fragments
of a thin blade of bronze,
apparently of the same
character as the thin flat
triangular blades described
in the first portion of this
Lecture. The urn (Fig.
68) is the form which is
widest at the mouth and
tapering to the base, and
it is specially remarkable
on this account, that,
although found associated
with such a deposit of
costly objects, it is itself as
rude and plain as can well

Fig. 68.— Urn found with Gold Orna-
ments in Banffshire (6 inches in
height).

be imagined. Of the gold

rings, which are all penannular in form, two are apparently
bracelets (one of these is shown in Fig. 69) ; the other three
(Figs. 70, 71, and 72) are much smaller in size. They are
all said to have been found in the urn, with the fragments of

1 For a description of the gold ornaments of the Bronze Age in Scot-
land that have been found in circumstances of association not necessarily
sepulchral, see the third Lecture, pp. 208-224.

62 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

the bronze blade, and as the urn was found inverted on a flat
stone, the probability is that it covered an interment after
cremation.

Fig. 69. — Gold Armlet (one of a pair) found in the Urn (Fig. 68)
(2j inches diameter).

In the month of March 1828, in the course of the con-
struction of a new road to the Academy at Alloa, a cemetery
of burials after cremation was discovered, from which no fewer

figs. 70, 71, 72.— Three small Gold Rings found in the Urn (Fig. 68)
(actual size).

than twenty-two urns were obtained. Of these only one
(FJg. 73) is now known to exist, and it owes its preservation
to its having been sent at the time of its discovery to the
National Museum. It is 12| inches high and 10 inches
diameter at the mouth, with an overhanging rim. There

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

was one unburnt burial among the group which these opera-
tions disclosed. It lay close to two of the burnt burials
that were first discovered, and on the flat stone cover of the
cist which contained the skeleton were two penannular
armlets of gold, together weighing nearly five ounces. One
of these is shown of the actual size in rig. 74.

Pig. 73.— Urn, being one of a group of twenty-two found at Alloa in 1828
(12^ inches in height).

In excavating a mound of considerable size at Upper
Dalachie, in Banff shire, in 1 794, a cinerary urn was discovered,
in which among the burnt bones there was a penannular
armlet of gold of the type of the Alloa armlets, 3 inches in
diameter, and formed of a solid rod of gold, a little over f of
an inch in thickness.1

At Largiebeg, in the island of Arran, some time previous
to 1840, a group of cists was discovered, in one of which

1 Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 129.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

there was found a penanuular armlet of gold, described as
being " in the form of the handle of a drawer," which was
sold to a jeweller and melted.

In 1731 Sir John Clerk describes a large penannular
armlet of gold, with dilated or trumpet-shaped ends, which
was found in an urn somewhere in the north of Scotland.

Fig. 74.— Gold Armlet (one of a pair) found with a burial at Alloa
(actual size).

In 1838, in reclaiming land on the estate of Suiiderland,
in the island of Islay, a number of burials were discovered in
the vicinity of a large standing stone which had been broken
up and removed by blasting with gunpowder. The burials
appear to have been of the cisted form, so common in these
Bronze Age cemeteries, and containing urns which are not
particularly described. In or near one of these cists there
were found a penannular armlet of gold with dilated or

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

trumpet-shaped ends, and another armlet of a form which is
of much less common occurrence, formed of " a broad band
of gold beaten out so as to form a convex centre, on either
side of which was a fluted ornamental border, and a raised
rim returned at the edge." This armlet was unfortunately
lost; the other, which has been engraved by Dr. Wilson,1
probably still exists.

Fig. 75.— Gold Ornament found in a Cist at Orton, Morayshire.
(Size, 5f inches long, 1J inch broad at the loop ; weight 182 grains.)

At Orton, near Fochabers, in 1 863, in the course of the
construction of the railway between Elgin and Keith, a stone
cist was unearthed on the crown of a gravelly hillock. But
little note of the contents was taken by the workmen, who only
observed about the centre of the cist " a ridge of black dust,"
and on either side of that a gold ornament, of the form here
shown (Fig. 75) from a drawing by Sir J. Noel Paton, represent-

1 Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 462.
5

66 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

ing the manner in which it has been considered that such a
pair of objects must have been worn. The one here repre-
sented is preserved in the National Museum, the other is
not known to be now in existence. It measures 5£ inches in
length, and is formed of a thin plate of gold, which, if flattened
out, would be 1J inch broad at the centre. It is orna-
mented along the margin with a row of punched markings
bordered by a line on either side. Its weight is 182 grains.
Among the gravel taken from the same hillock, and deposited
on the line as "ballast," there was subsequently found a
diadem or lunette-shaped plate of gold, which it was thought
might probably have been associated with the same inter-
ment.

Figs. 76 and 77.— Urn and Gold Ornament found at Monikie.
(Urn 5j inches in height.)

At Monikie in Forfarshire a small cairn beside the Cross
of Camuston1 was opened in 1620, by Commissary Manic.
who found underneath the cairn an unburnt burial, accom-
I>anied by a rude urn (Fig. 76) of the bowl-shaped form
usually associated with such interments, and also a broad flat
oval ring of thin gold (Fig. 77) with parallel mouldings in
repousst work. The urn is 5£ inches high, and 6 inches
diameter at the mouth, narrowing below to a base of 3J

1 It IB manifestly impossible to connect the Cross with the burial thus
found in juxtaposition with it The Cross is of a type which comes
close to the twelfth century.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 67

inches. The oval ring of thin gold, which is here shown of
the size of the original, is too small for a bracelet, and was
probably the mounting of the haft of a blade of bronze
similar to that found at Collessie, to which it has consider-
able resemblance.

At Huntiscarth, in the parish of Harray, Orkney, in 1858,
a grave-mound about 30 feet diameter at the base, and 1 1 or
12 feet high in the centre, was opened by the occupant of
the farm on which it is situated. Near the centre of the
mound, and about 7 or 8 feet under the surface, a cist was
found, about 2| feet in length by 20 inches in breadth, and
covered by a large flat stone. On either side of the cist two
upright stones, placed at right angles to the flags forming its
sides, rose to within 2 feet of the summit of the mound. In
the cist was a deposit of burnt bones, and at one corner on
a piece of flat stone lay four discs of thin gold, and a neck-
lace of beads of amber. The gold discs (two of which are
shown with the beads in Fig. 78) are about 3 inches diameter,
pierced with a circular hole in the centre, and ornamented
with a rude pattern of concentric circles and bands of oblique
lines or zigzags in repousst work. The amber beads are rudely
formed, some globular, but mostly triangular, with one or two
fragments of rectangular plates similar to those of the jet
necklaces already described, and two curved pendants.1

Eeviewing the whole results of this portion of the
investigation, it becomes evident that we have been dealing
with a special class of burials, which are for the most part
characterised by the presence among their grave goods of

1 The arrangement of the beads in the woodcut is of course quite
arbitrary. It is by no means certain that all or even the greater portion
of the necklace has been recovered. Gold discs of similar character have
been occasionally discovered in Ireland, but these are the only examples
on record in Scotland. For a description of some of the Irish specimens,
see the Collectanea Antigua, vol. iii. p. 221, and Wylde's Catalogue of
Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

- r
: -
- ~

o C
1^

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 69

cutting instruments of bronze. We find this characteristic
feature associated alike with burnt and with unburnt inter-
ments ; with burials in cairns, and with burials in natural
mounds, or hillocks of gravel and sand; with burials in
cists, and with uncisted interments, in which the urn con-
taining the burnt bones, or inverted over them, is simply set
in a hole in the ground. But on comparing the varied
phenomena of these burials, and groups of burials, it also
becomes evident that they present other features, which are
equally constant and characteristic. They are usually accom-
panied by urns, which exhibit peculiar varieties of form and
ornamentation. In the typical forms of the accompanying
urns we have thus a series of characteristic features of no
less importance in the classification of the burials than the
associated instruments of bronze. For instance, it is evident
that if the thin bronze blade which accompanied any one of
the interments with which we have been dealing had been
overlooked by the investigators, or had utterly perished, the
burial might still have been rightly referred to the Age of
Bronze by the character of the urn associated with it, because
it would have appeared on comparison that it was of the
same typical form as other urns in which or with which
bronze has been commonly found. In other words, the
special forms of the urns that have been found associated with
instruments of bronze are of themselves typical of the Age
of Bronze, and their presence alone is sufficient to establish
the classification of the interment when bronze is not present.
Again, on comparing the circumstances of the burials that
have now been described, it is evident that the urns deposited
with them divide themselves by the circumstances of their
association into two groups: — (1) those found with burnt
burials ; and (2) those found with burials unburnt. It is
also apparent that they divide themselves by the charac-
teristics of their forms into four typical varieties, of which

70 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKH.

two are found associated with burnt burials, and two with
burials unburnt : —

First Group. — Cinerary urns, containing or covering the
burnt bones and ashes of cremated burials : —

Type 1. Large, coarsely-made urns, wide-mouthed,

narrow-based, often with a thick overhanging rim,

or with slightly raised mouldings round the sloping

part, the ornamentation usually confined to the upper

part of the vessel. (See Figs. 79 to 82.)

Type 2. Very small cup-shaped urns, often pierced

with two or four small holes in the sides, the

exterior surface usually ornamented. When these

vessels occur, they are commonly found within the

larger variety of cinerary urn. (See Figs. 39 to 48.)

Second Group.— Urns that are not cinerary, associated

with unburnt interments.

Type 1. Tall urns, with thin everted lip and bulging

sides, highly ornamented. (See Figs. 83 to 95.)
Type 2. Wide-mouthed, thick-lipped, narrow-based

urns, highly ornamented. (See Figs. 99 to 107.)
Applying these deductions to the classification of the
unclassified burials, of whose casual discovery in almost
every parish in Scotland there are more or less precise
records, we find that the results correspond, so far as the
record goes, with the results that have been already obtained.
For instance, there can be no hesitation in concluding that
the accidental discovery of two burials at Birsley, in the
parish of Tranent, in 1880, one of which was enclosed in a
cist, while the other was a deposit of burnt bones within an
uni of the form here represented (Fig. 79), was an indication
of the site of a Bronze Age cemetery of the character of
those which have been already described. Similarly, although
no instruments of bronze were found in association with the
six urns of which the fragments were discovered in a sandy

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

Fig. 79. — Urn found at Birsley, near Prestonpans (14 inches in height).

Fig. 80. — Urn found at Drymmie Wood, Balbirnie (6 inches in height).

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

hillock at Diyinmie Wood, Balbirnie, in 1879, there caii be
no reasonable doubt that this also was the site of a Bronze
Age cemetery. The typical form of the urns, as represented by
the only one of the six which was recovered entire (Fig. 80),
is that which usually occurs associated with burials after
cremation in cemeteries from which bronze instruments have
been obtained. So also it may be inferred, from the form and
character of the urn (Fig. 81) found in ploughing a gravelly

Fig. 81.— Urn found at Quarryfonl, East Lothian (12 inches in height).

mound at Quarryford, East Lothian, in 1882, that a cemetery,
similar to that at Magdalen Bridge, must have existed there.
This urn so closely resembles the urns of the Magdalen Bridge
group (Figs. 29, 30), both in its form and ornamentation,
that there cannot be the slightest hesitation in regarding
them as examples of the same special variety of a strongly

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

marked type. The same may be affirmed of an urn (Fig. 82)
recently found at Seamill, Ayrshire, in excavating for a new
road. It stands 1 1 inches high, is 8f inches diameter across
the mouth, tapering to 6^ inches across the bottom, the upper
part ornamented with two lines of impressed markings on the
sloping brim, and the widest part of the vessel marked by a
slightly raised and rounded moulding, which forms the upper
border to a band of zigzags of two parallel lines, bounded by
a similarly raised and slightly rounded moulding below.

Fig. 82. — Urn found at Seamill, West Kilbride, Ayrshire (11 inches in height).

In a sandy hillock at Lesmurdie, in Banffshire, in 1849,
five cists were discovered, and the urns from three of the
cists (Figs. 83, 84, 85) are preserved in the National Museum.
In this case, although no bronze was found, the urns are of a
typical form, which has been found associated with bronze
when instruments of that metal are present with the inter-
ment ; and we can therefore have no hesitation in assigning

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

tliis cemetery also to the Age of Bronze. In one of the cists
some flint chips were found, which appeared to the investi-
gators to be incrusted with oxide of iron ; but the fact of the
presence of iron was not ascertained by analysis, and this
appearance may have been due to the presence of a nodule
of pyrites of iron deposited with the flints as a means of
striking fire. Strike-lights, consisting of a flake or scraper of
flint and a broken nodule of pyrites of iron, have been found
deposited with similar interments.1 In this cemetery at
Lesmurdie the burials were all unburnt, and the presence of
chips of flint, or even of carefully-fashioned implements of
stone (as we have already seen), is not an uncommon feature
of Bronze Age interments.

Figo. 83, 84, 85. — Three Urns found in Cists at Lesmunlie, Banffshire
(7f , 5£, and 7.J inches in height).

The same conclusion may be drawn with reference to a
still more remarkable cemetery of this description, which was
accidentally discovered at Broomend of Inverurie in 1866. In
a large natural mound of sand and gravel, which was cut
through in making a road, four cists were found. In two of
these no urns were observed. In the third, which measured
5 feet 3 inches in length, about 2 feet 6 inches in width, and
nearly the same in depth, two full-grown male skeletons were
found, placed with their heads at either end of the cist.

1 See an instance at Flowerburn, Ross-shire, noticed in Lecture vi
p. 376 ; and see also Canon GreenwelTs British Barrow*, p. 41, and
Evans's Stone Implement* of Great Britain, p. 284.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

Behind the head of each skeleton there was an urn of this
special form (Figs. 86, 87). In the cist there were also a
few flint chips, a portion of a broken ring, apparently made
from the burr of a red-deer horn, and a few fragments of
charcoal. Notwithstanding the presence of charcoal, the
bodies were unburnt, and the bones were closely covered with
a matted growth of rootlets, or more probably the mycelium
of some cryptogamous plant. In the fourth cist, which was

Figs. 86, 87. — Urns from a Cist at Broomend, Inverurie (6 inches and
7 inches in height).

covered by a very large and heavy slab, there were also two
skeletons, — one of an adult male, and the other apparently
of a very young female. The presence of the matted covering
closely enveloping the bones was again observed, but in this
case its close resemblance to decaying tufts of coarse hair
was regarded as evidence of the presence of the hide of an
ox, in which the bodies had been wrapped for burial. The
adult skeleton lay on its left side, with its head towards the
east end of the cist, the knees drawn up to the chin, and the

SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIMES.

feet drawn close to the thighs. The arms were bent upwards
with the hands to the face. The infant skeleton, similarly
contracted, was placed in the north-
west corner of the cist. In this
instance, as in the previous double
interment, there were also two urns
in the cist. The smaller of these
(Fig. 88) was placed behind the
smaller skeleton. It is of the
typical form usually found with un-
burnt burials of the Bronze Age,
5£ inches high, and 3| inches wide at
the mouth, well-shaped, and highly
ornamented. The other urn (Fig. 89)
is 6 £ inches in height. It was placed
behind the larger skeleton, and

presents the remarkable association of a spoon or ladle of
horn, which was found projecting from it in the manner

Fig. 88. — Urn from the same
Cist as Fig. 89 (5 j inches
in height).

Fig. 89.— Urn and Spoon of Horn found in a Cist at Broomend of Inverurie.

shown in the engraving. The handle of the spoon is 9 inches
in length, and the bowl, which has become twisted and split

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

with age, is 2| inches in length, and barely an inch in depth.
The excessively bent form of the handle may be due to its
position with reference to the rim of the urn.1

Again, in the casual discovery of two cists at Slap, near
Turriff, Aberdeenshire, in one of which there was found a tall
thin urn with everted lip (Fig. 90), we cannot fail to recognise
indications of the presence of a Bronze Age cemetery. The
urn, which is 6 inches high, though perfectly plain, exhibits
the typical form which is characteristic of one special variety
of the urns accompanying unburnt interments of the Age of
Bronze.

Fig. 90.— Urn found in a Cist at
Slap, near Turriff (6 inches in
height).

Fig. 91.— Urn found in Court
Hill of Dairy, Ayrshire
(9J inches in height).

In clearing away a large earthen mound known as the
Court Hill, at Dairy, in Ayrshire, in 1872, a cairn of stones
was found underneath it, and in a cavity under the original
surface on which the cairn had been reared there were found
the fragments of an urn of this typical form (Fig. 91),
9£ inches in height, and highly ornamented.

1 Accounts of the burials from which these details are taken were
communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland by Mr. J. H.
Chalmers and Mr. C. B. Davidson, and printed in tbeir Proceedings, vol.
vii. pp. 110, 118.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

A more rudely made but elaborately ornamented example
(Fig. 92), measuring 7 inches in height and 5 inches
diameter across the mouth, was found in a cairn at Freefield,
Aberdeenshire. The cairn, which was 60 feet in diameter
and 15 feet high, yielded nothing else to the explorers,
working with a force of five or six labourers for six
days.

Fig. 92. — Urn found in a Cairn at Free-
field (7 inches in height).

Fig. 93.— Urn found at Drem
(8 inches in height).

An example (here figured on a smaller scale as Fig. 93)
from Drem, Haddingtonshire, was discovered in 1882, by the
ploughshare coming in contact with the covering stone of the
cist. The urn, which measures 8 inches in height, and
4£ inches across the mouth, had been placed at the feet of
an unburnt skeleton laid on its side in a contracted position.

At Parkhill, in Aberdeenshire, in excavating a gravelly
hillock for railway purposes in 1867 and 1881, two burials

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 79

were discovered, each accompanied by an urn.1 The urn
from the last discovered interment (Fig. 94) is now in the
National Museum. The burial was that of an unburnt body,
placed in a contracted posture, within a cist 3 feet 9 inches
in length by 2 feet 3 inches in breadth, the bottom of which
was paved with small pebbles. Among the human bones in

Fig. 94.— Urn found in a Cist at Parkhill (5J inches in height).

the cist were fragments of the left fore-limb of a boar, and
the bottom of the cist was sprinkled with charcoal. The
urn, which is of graceful shape, and elaborately ornamented,
is 5| inches high, and 4| inches wide at the mouth.

An urn (Fig. 95) of the same typical form, but wider in
proportion to its height, and with a more distinctly everted

1 "Notice of Cists," etc., by Mr. Ferguson of Kinmundy, in Proc.
Soc, Antiq. Scot., vol. xiv. p. 69.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

lip, was found a few months ago in association with an un-
burnt interim-Mi at Buckie. Its ornamentation is of tin-
same character, and, like the previous specimen, it is here
figured of half the actual size, for the purpose of showing the
character of the decoration with greater distinctness. It

Fig. 95.— Urn from a Cist at Buckle (7 inches in height).

measures 6 inches diameter across the mouth, and stands
7 inches high.

Another urn of the same typical form, found at Tents
Moor, between Leuchars and Tayport, in Fife (Fig. 96),
presents a curious peculiarity in its ornamentation, which
consists of the impression of a twisted cord of two strands
wound spirally round the vessel from bottom to rim. A

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 81

triple band of a similar marking surrounds the inside of the
rim. The vessel is finely formed and well made, of a close
tenacious paste. It stands 5 inches high, and has a diameter
of 5 inches at the mouth, which, like others of its class, is
slightly everted towards the lip.

Fig. 96.— Urn found at Tents Moor, near Leuchars, Fife
(5 inches in height).

At Balmuick, near Comrie, in Perthshire, a group of three
small cairns were recently explored by Mr. Boston. In a
cist in one of these there was found a very remarkable urn
(Fig. 97), presenting the unusual feature of a side-handle.
Urns of this variety have been occasionally found in England,
but this is the first example that is known to have occurred
in Scotland. In its form the body of the vessel somewhat
resembles the tall variety with the thin everted lip, but is
more akin to the form of the ornate vessel found at Barnhall,
6

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TI.ML.S

Fig. 97.— Urn found in a Cist at Bal-
muick, near Comrie (5j inches in
height).

which seems an intermediate form between the tall vessel
and the bowl-shaped variety.

At Darnhall, in Peeblesshire, in 1869, a group of cists was

discovered in a gravel-pit,
fnn 11 one of which an urn
of the peculiar form hen-
shown (Fig. 98) was re-
covered and sent to the
National Museum by Lord
Klibank. It is the only one
of this special variety which
has come under my notice.
It is not distinctly stated
whether it was associated
with an unbumt body, but
the form is more allied tu
that of these tall thin-lipped vessels than to the thick-
lipped, shallower, and more bowl-shaped form of those

which follow, though they
are also associated with un-
bumt bodies.

By the giving way of a
retaining-wall in a cutting for
the public road, through a sandy
hillock known as Kingsbarns
Law, near Grail, in 1873, two
cists were discovered, in each
of which was an unbumt
skeleton with an urn. The
urns (Figs. 99, 100) were sub-
sequently obtained for the
National Museum. They are both of the thick-lipped,
wide-mouthed form, almost as wide as they are high,
and tapering to a narrow basa Like most urns of this

Fig. 98.— Urn found at Darnhall,
Peeblesshire (5J inches in
height).

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

class, they are highly ornamented over the whole of the
exterior surface.

Figs. 99, 100.— Urns from Cists at Kingsbarns Law, Crail
(6 inches and 5 inches in height).

At Glenhead, near Doune, Perthshire, a mound or cairn
covering a number of cists was cleared away some years ago.
In one of the cists an urn closely resembling the smaller of
the two from Kingsbarns Law was found, and along with it a
peculiarly-shaped stone hammer of veined quartzite. The

Fig. 101.— Urn found in a Cairn at
Glenhead, near Doune (4i inches
in height).

Fig. 102. — Stone Hammer
found with the Um
(2i inches in length).

urn (Fig. 101) measures 4£ inches in height, and 4 inches in
diameter across the mouth, and is highly ornamented over

84 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

the whole of its exterior surface. The stone hammer (Fig.
102) is 2 1 inches in length, and 1] inch in diameter, nearly
cylindrical in form, with rounded ends. It is beautifully
polished, and pierced near the middle by a neatly-bored hole
for the haft, with parallel sides, about f inch in diameter.
No bronze was observed in association with these burials,
but theB3 was no attempt at a careful investigation. The
character of the group of interments differs in no respect
from that of many other such groups in connection with
which the occurrence of bronze has been recorded. The
presence of this finely polished stone hammer-head does not
necessitate the attribution of an interment like this to the
Age of Stone. Speaking of these perforated axes and
hammers of polished stone, Mr. Evans remarks1 that " many
of these appear to belong to a time when bronze was already
in use, at all events for knife-daggers," and the form of the
urn which accompanied this particular hammer is, as we
have seen, a Bronze Age form.

Figs. 103, 104.— Urns found at Murleywell and Ninewells, Forfarsbire
(4j and 4J inches in height).

At Murleywell, in the parish of Glammis, Forfarshire, in

1852, an urn of similar form (Fig. 103) was found with an

unbunit skeleton in a cist of rough slabs. It measures

1 Evans's Ancient Stone /mplanenb, etc., of Great Britain, pp. 49, 163.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

4f inches in height, by 4f inches diameter at the mouth,
and has the whole exterior surface decorated with impressed
markings in parallel bands and groups of zigzags. It also
possesses the special feature of four projecting knobs placed
at equal distances round the upper part underneath the rim,
and pierced laterally by small round holes.

Another urn of similar form (Fig. 104), but without the
pierced ears, and less elaborately ornamented, was found in
similar circumstances at Ninewells, near Invergowrie in
Forfarshire, in 1863. It measures 4| inches in height, and
4 1 inches in diameter across the mouth, tapering to a base
of 2 1 inches in diameter.

Fig. 105.— Urn from Cist at Stannergate
(4£ inches in height).

Fig. 106. -Urn found at Oban
(4^f inches in height).

An urn of more bowl-shaped form (Fig. 105), found in one
of a group of cists at the Stannergate, Dundee, is ornamented
over the whole exterior surface with bands of impressed
markings of a twisted cord alternating with double rows of
triangular impressions. All the cists contained unburnt
interments, and it is probable that each cist contained an
urn, although this was the only one noticed by the workmen.
It measures 4| inches in height and about the same in
diameter.

An urn of similar bowl-shaped form (Fig. 106), 4f inches

86 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

high, and 5 inches diameter at the brim, was found in one of
a group of cists discovered in excavating a gravelly hillock
at Oban, Argyllshire, in 1876. The figure of it which is
here given is drawn to a smaller scale than the others.

Fig. 107.— Urn from a Cist at Keuuyshillock
(5 inches in height).

A very beautifully ornamented example of bowl-shaped
form (Fig. 107) was found in a cist covered by a caini at
Kennyshillock, in the parish of Urquhart, Elginshire, in 1879.
It measures 5 inches in height, and 4£ inches diameter across
the mouth. The cairn was about 25 feet in diameter, and
contained at least one other cist, from which an urn was
recovered in 1871.

With regard to the general phenomena of these burials of
the Bronze Age, it is apparent, from these descriptions of
isolated interments and local cemeteries, that no uniformity
exists in what may be termed the external and non-essential
features of the burials. But we find that these* interments,
whether their external manifestations may be those of burial
in a cairn, burial in a simple cist set in a gravelly hillock, or
burial in an urn unenclosed by any cist, are characterised by
the same distinctive feature, — the presence of the blade or

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 87

other instrument of bronze. We find also that the urns,
the cairns, and the cists, which are thus associated by the
common presence of this distinctive feature, are themselves
characterised by certain distinctive features which are con-
stant. The urns (as has been shown) exhibit four different
varieties of form. The cairns are all unchambered, — that is,
they are simple unstructural heaps of stones piled over a
central cist, or over a group of cists. The cists, whether in
cairns or simply set in the ground in a natural hillock, are
of two varieties, — a cist of small capacity, for the ashes of a
burial after cremation, and a cist of larger capacity, for a burial
unburnt. The longer variety of the Bronze Age cist, however,
is rarely, if ever, of full length, like the cisted or stone-lined
graves of the Iron Age and the Christian time, and it
generally differs from these in its greater width and massive-
ness of construction. As a rule, its sides, ends, and cover
are of single stones, often of great size, usually unshaped,
but occasionally marked by sculpturings of very peculiar
character, though such instances are really rare. At
(Joilsfield in Ayrshire, in 1785, a cist was opened, which con-
tained an urn of the wide-mouthed, bowl-shaped form (type 2
of group 2, on p. 70), of which so many examples have been
given. The cover of the cist was sculptured on the under
side with cups and circles.1 At Carnwath Moor, in Lanark-
shire, in 1870, a small cairn was cleared away, in which a
cist was found, containing an urn of the tall narrow form,
with bulging sides and thin everted lip (type 1 of group 2,
on p. 70). The cover of the cist, which is an unshaped
slab of sandstone, 4 feet long by 3 feet in width, and 6 inches
in thickness, is sculptured on its under side as shown in
Fig. 108. At Kilmartin, in Argyllshire, in 1870, a cist, in the

1 This stone is figured from a drawing communicated to the Royal
Society in Dr. Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 480 ; and
in Professor Simpson's Archaic Sculpturings, p. 30, PI. xiii.

88 SCOTLAND IX PAGAX TIMES.

construction of which two sculptured stones had been used,
was found in the remains of a partially ruined caini. The cist,
which was 6 feet in length inside, was formed of large stones
placed in the manner shown in the ground-plan (No. 1 of Fig.
109), and covered with a massive slab. The covering slab
was unsculptured, but the stones marked B and A respectively
were sculptured as shown in the diagram. The slab B (No. 2

Fig. 108.— Sculptured Cover of Stone Cist at Carnwath
(4 feet 3 inches in length).

of Fig. 109) is marked with a long groove, picked with u
sharp-pointed instrument, and having shorter grooves at right
angles to it. The slab A (No. 3 of Fig. 109) has the repre-
sentation of a flat axe-head, of the typical form of the earliest
axe-heads of bronze, eight times repeated. These sculpt ur-
ings are shallower than seems requisite for use as moulds
for casting these implements, although Mr. Evans has re-

BRONZE AGE BUKIALS.

marked that it is not impossible that they might have been
so used.1 But whether their presence may imply that this

Fig. 109. — Cist at Kilmartin and its Sculptures.

1. Ground-plan of Cist (6 feet long inside). 2. Incised Face of Upright Stone B.
3. Front View of Stone A, showing incised Sculpturings of Axe-heads.

is the grave of a Bronze Age founder, and these are his
moulds, or whether they are merely symbolic representations,

1 Ancient Bronze Implements, etc., of Great Britain, by John Evans,
D.C.L., etc., p. 430.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

3/tee.

Fig. 110. — Ground-plan of
Cairn on the Glebe at
KMertonn.

the inference is unavoidable that they belong to the Age of
Bronze.

Again, with regard to the burial customs, it is also apparent
from the descriptions of these
,..~- local cemeteries, that we have

no evidence sufficient to separ-
ate the custom of cremation
from the custom of burying the
body unburnt. We have fre-
quently found the burnt inter-
ments and the interments
unburnt in close juxtaposition
in the same group of burials,
and in point of fact the two
modes of burial are occasionally
present in the same cairn. For

instance, in a cairn on the glebe of Eddertoun, in Ross-shire,
which was explored by Rev. Dr. Joass,1 a group of six cists

was found. The cairn was a
small one, about 24 feet in dia-
meter, and 5 feet high, and the
cists were disposed as shown in
the accompanying ground-plan
(Fig. 1 1 0). The cists marked with
the numbers 2, 5, and 6 on the
ground - plan contained burnt
bones, while that marked with
the number 3 contained an un-
burnt skeleton and the urn here
shown in Fig. Ill, about 6 inches
high, and 5 inches diameter at the

mouth. It is of the tall variety, with thin everted lip and
bulging sides, usually associated with unburnt interments.
1 Prof. Soc. AiUiq. Scot., voL vii. p. 268.

Fig. 111.— Urn tound in one
oftheCirts.

BRONZE AGE BUKIALS. 9 1

At Tealing, in Forfarshire, in 1870, in a gravelly hillock
at the base of Tealing Hill, three interments were found.
At a depth of 8 feet from the surface there was a cist, con-
taining an unburnt skeleton laid on its left side, with the
head to the east ; and about 3 feet above the cover of the

Figs. 112, 113. — Urns found overlying a Cist at Tealing.

cist were two cinerary urns (Figs. 112, 113) filled with burnt
bones. One was inverted over the bones, the position of the
other was not ascertained. Both were simply set in the
gravel, at a depth of about 3 feet under the surface, and
slightly protected by a setting of small stones.1 They are

1 The circumstances of these burials were communicated at the time to
the Rev. Canon Greenwell of Durham, whose extensive experience en-
titles him to speak with authority on this question. He says : — " This
discovery is similar to many that have come under my own observation,
— an unburnt body with one or more burnt bodies overlying it. Were
the two burials, the burnt and the unburnt, contemporaneous? I am
inclined to think they were, and I have found so many cases where a burnt
and an unburnt body have been laid in the grave most unquestionably at
the same time, as to make such a proceeding by no means an unusual one.
It is difficult to say why one was burnt, while the other was interred
without having undergone the process of cremation. I have thought we
have in the burnt bodies those of wives or slaves killed at the time of
the funeral of the man ; still that is mere conjecture, and men are
found burnt and laid alongside of unbnrnt women, if we may judge of the
sex by the accompanying implements or weapons, which seems a fair de-
duction ; but I am certain that inhumation and cremation were practised,

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

of the large, wide-mouthed variety, ornamented only on the
upper part, which is invariably associated with burials after
cremation.

Fig. 1 U. l'i n from a Cairn at Stenton (Hi inches in height).

In a cairn at Stentou, in East Lothian, which was removed
in 1877,1 two interments were discovered, one of which was
burnt, and the other unburnt. The cairn was a large one,
having its base defined by a circle of boulders measuring
40 feet in diameter. Near the centre of the cairn was a
small square cist containing the urn here figured (Fig. 114),
14i inches high, and 12| inches diameter at the mouth. It

not only at the same time, but for interments made on the same day.
It is probable that this case at Tealing was a similar one, and that the
two overlying burnt bodies were laid there at the same time as the un-
burnt body. The burials were no doubt of the native population, and
in all likelihood pre-Roraan."— Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., voL viii. p. 382.

1 Described by Rev. George Marjori banks in Proc. Soc. Antitj. Scot.,
vol. xvi. p. 220.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS.

had been placed in the cist in an inverted position over a
deposit of burnt bones. Near this cist was another, 4£
feet in length, by 2i feet in breadth, containing the remains
of an unburnt skeleton, and with it a finely chipped knife
of flint (Fig. 115), formed of a triangular flake 3 inches in
length, and a whetstone of micaceous schist (Fig. 116), of
quadrangular form, with a hole partially bored at one end.
Whetstones of this form are only found in graves of the
Bronze Age. No urn was found with this interment.

Figs. 115, 116.— Flint Knife and small Whetstone, found with an unburnt
Burial at Stenton (each 3 inches in length).

In the whole of these burials and groups of burials, when
taken collectively, there is presented to us a series of pheno-
mena which differ widely from the phenomena of the Iron
Age burials described in the last course of Lectures. They
so far resemble the Iron Age burials, inasmuch as they are of
Pagan character, accompanied by deposits of grave goods ;
but these deposits are widely different in character from those

94 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

accompanying the burials of the Iron Age. The Iron Age
deposits abound in tools and weapons of iron, but they
contain no cutting implements of bronze. The deposits with
which we are now dealing are totally destitute of iron, and
the only cutting instruments of metal which they contain
are made of bronze. The presence of personal ornaments of
silver was also a special feature of the sepulchral deposits
of the Iron Age ; but the absence of silver is a feature of the
deposits we have now surveyed which is quite as characteristic
as the absence of iron, while the presence of personal orna-
ments of gold, of massive and peculiar forms, is equally
notable. Not less notable is the change in the character of
the ornamentation of all the objects that exhibit surface
decoration. When attention is directed to the prevailing
characteristics of that decoration, it becomes apparent that it
presents nothing in common with the system of ornament
witli which we had become familiar in our investigation of
the Iron Age deposits. The ornament we now meet with
consists almost entirely of combinations of straight lines,
disposed in parallel groups or zigzags, or triangular or
lozenge-shaped spaces. Occasionally a segmental curve, or
u concentric circle, appears, but the prevailing character of
the decoration is as clearly a system of straight lines as that
of the Iron Age was a system of curved lines. By these in-
dications we perceive that we have passed from a system of
decoration in curvilinear forms to a system of decoration
in rectilinear forms, and from a phase of culture familiar
with the use of iron and silver to a phase of culture
familiar with the use of bronze and gold. The bronze is
present in these deposits in the same character in which
iron was present in the deposits of the Iron Age — as the
only metal used for cutting instruments. We find it asso-
ciated both with burnt and unburnt burials, with urns of
clay of special forms and peculiar ornamentation, with

BRONZE AGE BURIALS. 95

personal ornaments of gold, amber, and jet, with implements
of polished stone and roughly chipped arrow-heads and
knives of flint. We find the typical burials, of which these
associated objects are characteristic, extending over the
whole of the mainland of Scotland, and into many of its
outlying isles. But we do not find — at least I have been
unable to discover — any obvious or noticeable distinction
between the forms or the workmanship of the different
examples of the same classes of objects found in widely
separated portions of the country. The urns from Ross-shire
and Mull are as well made and as highly decorated as those
from Midlothian. The bronze blades and jet necklaces from
Sutherlandshire are precisely like those from Forfarshire and
Midlothian. The gold ornaments from Banffshire are simi-
lar to those from the southern districts of Scotland. There
may be among the various examples some that are finer and
some that are ruder than others, but taking them collectively,
it is evident that the objects fashioned in these various
materials usually exhibit shapeliness of form, fitness of
purpose, and tastefulness of decoration. These thin trian-
gular blades of bronze are as beautifully cast and finished as
any modern founder could wish. They were neatly fitted to
their handles, and solidly fastened by rivets. The handles
themselves were occasionally decorated with mountings of
gold ornamented in repoussb work. The smaller blades of
oval outline are even more skilfully made and more delicately
finished and decorated. The urns with which they are asso-
ciated exhibit a wonderful variety of graceful forms and
appropriately simple but effective ornamentation. They are
not wheel-made, but many of them are nearly as regular
and symmetrical in their outlines as if they had been thrown
on a potter's wheel. With these finely ornamented vessels
there are associated armlets, earrings, and diadems of gold,
bracelets of bronze, necklaces of jet, and beads of amber.

96 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

The gold ornaments are massive and well made, and their
forms, though peculiar, are neither rude nor devoid of
elegance. The necklaces of beads and plates of jet are
elaborately constructed and carefully ornamented with
punctulated patterns, which contrast fitly with the polished
surface of the material. Thus there is taste exhibited in the
forms of all these variously fabricated objects, and dexterity
and skill implied in their finish and workmanship. Intrinsi-
cally, they are evidences of the capacity and skill of the men
who made them. But, as we find them all in associations
which show that they are grave-goods — devoted to the dead,
— we see that they are also evidences of the piety and affec-
tion which thus expressed themselves in the manner of the
time.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 97

LECTURE II.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

IN my last Lecture I have dealt with a series of burials
selected on account of their essential phenomena, these
being the phenomena which are presented by the deposit
itself, inclusive of the manner of burial, and all its under-
ground accompaniments. In the present Lecture I shall
deal with a series of burials selected by their overground
phenomena, with the view of determining whether they
exhibit the same essential or underground phenomena which
are characteristic of the previously described series. The
burials now to be dealt with are those which are distin-
guished externally by overground erections or stone-settings,
such as are known in this country by the names of Stone
Circles, or groups of Standing Stones.

On Mauchrie Moor, in the townland of Tormore, in the
island of Arran, a remarkable group of interments was in-
vestigated in 1860 by the late Dr. Archibald Bryce. The
most characteristic of this group was an interment in a care-
fully constructed cist, 3 feet in length, 1 foot 4 inches in
breadth, and 2 feet deep, covered over by a very large stone at
a depth of 3 feet 4 inches under the surface. The cist was
placed in the centre of a circle of about 2 1 feet in diameter,
on the circumference of which stood four blocks of granite

98 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

about 3 feet high, and nearly equidistant from each other.
In the cist lay an urn on its side among some fragments
of bone, whether burnt or unburnt is not specified. Tin*
uni (Fig. 117) is a wide-mouthed vessel, tapering in the
lower part, and contracting in stages towards the brim. Its
whole surface is ornamented in bands of oblique lines and
impressed markings, the bands being separated from each

Fig. 117. — Urn from a Stone Circle at Tonnore, Arran
(71 inches in height).

other by single, double, or triple lines, scored with a point.
Among the bones on the floor of the cist were a few flint
chips, and a fragment of a bronze awl or pin, greatly corroded.
This burial in its underground phenomena, which constitute
its essential features, differs in no respect from the typical
character of the burials described in the last Lecture. But
it presents this special distinction, that it differs from thrni
in its overground features, inasmuch as it is placed within a

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 99

construction which is not a cairn or a mound, but a setting
of standing stones, on the circumference of a circle enclosing
a considerable area.

Other interments presenting similar features were found
in the immediate vicinity. One of these burials, enclosed
in a cist a little over 3 feet in length, 22 inches broad,
and 26 inches deep, was accompanied by an urn (Fig. 118)
of similar form and ornamentation to that last described, and
a few chips of flint. No bones were noticed. The inference

Fig. 118. — Urn from a Stone Circle at Tormore, Arran
(6J inches in height).

from this is that the deposit was unburnt, for there is nothing
more indestructible than burnt bone. The cist was placed
in the centre of a circle 15 yards in diameter, around the
circumference of which there had been set at intervals seven
tall pillars or narrow slabs of sandstone. Of these, three
were still standing, two had fallen, and the others had been
removed. The tallest of those left standing was about 18
feet in height, 3| feet in breadth, and 22 inches in thickness ;
the second was 15 feet high, 3 feet broad, and 14 inches

100 SCOTLAND IS PAGAN TIMES.

thick ; and the third 12 feet high, 4 feet broad, and 1 1 inches
thick. This burial differs from the first, inasmuch as ft
pix-sents no bronze. But every other feature is essentially
the same, and we only know that no bronze was detected in
it. Such a small pin-like fragment as that which gave a
distinctive character to the first interment may have been
1 in-sent without being detected. Indeed, the little fragment
found in the first instance, although detected and preserved
by the explorers, was not known to be of bronze until the
objects found with the burials had been forwarded to the
Museum, and nothing was apparently further from their
minds than that such tilings as minute portions of pins or
awls of bronze were to be looked for in such interments.
But the absence of the evidence of bronze in this interment
does not affect the obvious conclusion from the concurrent
similarity of all the other features in both. They are inter-
ments with urns of similar character, similar in their
ornamentation, and placed in cists, in the centre of an
enclosed circular space defined on the surface by a circular
stone-setting or circle of standing stones.

An interment with a similar urn and a few chips of flint
was found in a cist placed in the centre of another circle of
standing stones at no great distance from the last-mentioned
example. In this case, the circle had been about 13 yards in
diameter, and had five stones remaining in its circumference,
four of which were prostrate. The stone still remaining
erect was about 14 feet in height. A second interment, un-
burnt, was found in a cist placed at a distance of 3 feet from
the central cist. Here again we have a repetition of the
same features, but with this difference, that there is more
than one interment within the space enclosed by the circular
boundary of erect pillar-stones.

In all these burials the phenomena are of the same
essential character as those of the burials described in the

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 101

last Lecture. They are burials associated with implements
of bronze, or with urns decorated with that peculiar ornamen-
tation of straight and zigzag lines, which we have learned to
recognise as characteristic of the Age of Bronze. They differ
from those previously described in one respect only, — they
are marked above ground by the presence of a stone-setting
of peculiar character, which takes the form of a ring of
standing stones encompassing the area in which the inter-
ments have been made.

I now proceed to describe a further series of interments
in which this overground characteristic is specially con-
spicuous. For our knowledge of their phenomena we are
indebted to a series of investigations made by Mr. Charles
Elphinstone Dalrymple, F.S.A. Scot., which constitute one
of the most important contributions to the materials of
Scottish archaeology that has ever been made.1

At Tuack, near Kintore, in Aberdeenshire, Mr. Dalrymple
found a group of seven interments within the area enclosed
by a circle of six upright pillar-stones, the ground-plan of
which is shown in Fig. 119. Four of these burials were
deposits of incinerated bones, placed in small round pits from
1 8 inches to 2 feet in depth ; and three were also deposits of
incinerated bones, but placed in pits of somewhat larger
dimensions, and covered by inverted urns. The four first-
mentioned burials were arranged round the central space of
the circle, at nearly equal distances from the centre, and from
each other ; the three last-mentioned burials were near the
two northern stones of the circle, their positions being shown
on the ground-plan by small dotted circles. The deposit
nearest the eastmost stone was covered by an inverted urn

1 The results of these investigations are briefly summarised in the
first volume of Dr. John Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland, issued by
the Spalding Club in 1856. As this work is now both rare and costly,
they are not so well known to archaeologists as they deserve to be.

102 SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIMr>.

(Fig. 120) 12 inches high, 10 inches wide at the mouth, widen-
ing to 1 1 inches at the shoulder, and tapering thence to a base
of 5 inches diameter. Its ornamentation is a simple band of
intercrossing zigzags, forming lozenge-shaped spaces by inter-
section. The ornament is confined to the sloping upper part
of the vessel next the rim, and below it two raised and
slightly rounded mouldings encircle the urn in a direction
l>arallcl to the rim. These features are absolutely identical

Fig. 11 9. --Diagrammatic Ground-plan of Stone Circle at Toack
(24 feet diameter).

with the features so frequently remarked in the larger variety
of the cinerary urns found in the cists and cemeteries
described in the last Lecture ; and this interment presents
another feature, apart from the form of the urn and the char-
acter of its ornamentation, which is also identical with the
most characteristic of all the features of these cisted burials.
Among the incinerated bones protected by the urn there was
found a small fragment of thin bronze, greatly corroded, a
portion doubtless of one of the thin bronze blades which
are the characteristic accompaniments of so many interments
of the Age of Bronze. The other deposits presented features

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

103

equally characteristic. Close by the stone which stood to
the west of the north point in the circumference of the circle,
two interments were found, also of incinerated bones covered
by inverted urns. One of these urns was 13 inches high,
1 1 inches wide at the mouth, widening to 1 3 inches at the
shoulder, and tapering thence to a base of 9 inches diameter.
Among the incinerated bones which it covered there were
found two small fragments of thin bronze, brittle and con-

Fig. 120.— Urn found in the Stone Circle of Tuack (12 inches in height).

torted, having apparently passed through the fire. They
have every appearance of the wasted fragments of the thin
bronze blade which is so commonly the characteristic accom-
paniment of Bronze Age burials. The urn covering the
contiguous deposit was larger in size, but of the same typical
character, and presenting a variety of form which has become
familiar to us from its frequent occurrence in the cists and
cemeteries of the last Lecture. It has a broad overhanging
brim, below which is a kind of neck and shoulder, from
which it slopes regularly to the bottom. It measured 14|

1 04 SCOTLAND IK PAGAN TIMES.

inches high, 11 inches in diameter across the mouth, and
14 inches across the shoulder, contracting to 5 inches dia-
meter at the base.

In this group of burials the same essential features are
again present. The interments are burnt, and associated
with cinerary urns of the same typical form and ornamen-
tation, and with the same characteristic thin flat blade of
bronze. There are no cists, but as we have previously
found in cremation burials, a large urn is inverted over the
deposit of incinerated bones. The burials are placed in an
enclosure marked off from the surrounding area by a circular
stone-setting, or circle of standing stones. But this place of
interment has an addition to its overground phenomena
which we have not previously met with. Its area is not
only marked by the circular stone-setting, but it is further
cut off from the common soil around it by a trench of 1 2 feet
wide (not shown in the ground-plan), encompassing its cir-
cumference, and giving a sense of complete isolation to the
circle of stones with its included grave-ground.

At Crichie, also in the Kintore district, another series of
interments was found within a circular space cut off from
the surrounding area by a trench A B of Fig. 121, which
differed from that at Tuack, inasmuch as it was not carried
completely round the included area, but was interrupted at
two points (C C) by accesses on the unexcavated level of the
north and south sides. The trench was 20 feet wide, and
6 feet deep, and the accesses connecting the included area
with the adjoining surface were 9 feet wide. On the
circumference of the circular area, within the trench (as
shown in Fig. 121), there had been a circle of six standing
stones, with a seventh in the centre, but five had been
removed for building purposes before the time of Mr.
Dalrymple's investigation. In the centre of the circular
area he found under the apparent surface a cairn of stones,

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 105

lo^feet iii diameter, and about 5 feet high (see Fig. 122).
Its base was formed of flat slabs, the inner edges of which

Figs. 121 and 122. — Ground-plan and Section of Stone Circle at Crichie,
Aherdeenshire. (Scale 25 feet to an inch.)

overlapped those of a very large slab in the centre. This
slab was the cover of a cist, about 4 feet long by 2 feet

106 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

10 inches wide. The cist contained the remains of an
unburnt skeleton, and (it is also said) some calcined hones,
hut nothing else was found in it. Near one of the stones
of the circle on the north side of the area (No. 2 on the
ground-plan) an inverted urn was found set in a small
pit excavated in the subsoil, and covering a deposit of
calcined bones, " partly human, and partly of some animal."
The urn is about 12 inches high, 7£ inches diameter at
the mouth, widening to 10 J inches at the shoulder, and
tapering thence to a diameter of 6 inches at the base. The

Fig. 123.— Perforated Stone Hammer, from Stone Circle.
Crichie (4) inches in length).

part l>etween the shoulder and the brim is ornamented with
diagonal lines impressed in the clay, the lower part plain.
At the base of another stone (No. 1 in the plan) there was
also a deposit of incinerated bones, whether protected by an
uni or not is uncertain. Close by it, and also in front of
the base of the standing stone, was another deposit of
calcined bones, and between the two deposits there was
found the finely made head of a war-axe or hammer of
stone (of the form shown in Fig. 1 23). It is of greenstone,
4 J inches in length, and 3| inches in greatest breadth, oval in

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

107

its outlines, but deeply hollowed on the two sides at the
orifices of the perforation for the handle, so as to give grace-
fulness to the shape, and at the same time to lessen the
extent of the perforation. These hollows are bordered by a
group of three incised lines, which follow the curvature of
the hollow in the sides of the implement. Several other
deposits were found at different parts of the area, chieny
in the vicinity of the bases of the pillar-stones which had
been removed. One of these
deposits was enclosed in a
small cist, others were merely
deposited in the earth, but
one was contained within
an urn of elegant shape, 9£
inches high, 1\ inches in
greatest width, and narrow-
ing to 3| inches diameter
at the base (Fig. 124). It
has a thick overhanging rim,
a deep short neck formed
by an inward curve, from
which it curves quickly out
to the shoulder, and thence
tapers in a long slope to the bottom. The neck and the
part of the vessel immediately under the shoulder are
ornamented by impressed lines forming a series of double
zigzags crossing each other in the centre.

In this group of interments we have again a repetition of
phenomena which are for the most part of similar character
to those that have been previously described. The burials
are mostly after cremation, but occasionally unburnt. They
are placed sometimes in cists, sometimes in urns, and
occasionally in pits in the subsoil. These are all features with
which we have become familiar as characteristic of Bronze

Fig. 124. — Urn from Stone Circle,
Crichie (9| inches in height).

1 08 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Age interments. The burying-ground is a circular space, cut
off from the surrounding area by a trench, with a mound
of earth on the outside of the excavation. The space thus
enclosed is also encompassed by tall pillar-stones set up
at intervals round its circumference. The urns associated
with the burials are of the same forms, and decorated with
the same ornamentation, as those found in other circum-
stances associated with fragments or blades of bronze.
Here there is no evidence of the presence of bronze itself,
but the perforated stone battle-axe is a typical form of
stone implement assignable to the Age of Bronze, because
it has been often found associated with implements of
bronze in other deposits of a sepulchral character.

At Fullarton, also in the neighbourhood of Kintore, Mr.
I )alrymple found seven deposits of incinerated bones, some
of which were accompanied by fragments of urns, and also
an unburnt burial, within the area of a circle of which only
three stones remained, two of which were prostrate and
broken. The circle had been about 28 feet in diameter,
and probably consisted of six or seven stones. In other
districts of Aberdeenshire he found similar deposits, in a
series of circles of much larger size and more massive
construction. They are distinguished from those that have
been described by the presence, in the circular stone-setting,
of one stone greater than any of the others, which is never
erect, but lies on edge between the two pillar-stones that
stand to the west of the south point in the circumference of
the circle.

We thus proceed to consider a series of burials found
within such circles as have one of the spaces between t\v»
of the standing stones filled by a great recumbent stone
or slab, usually placed on its edge, and situated commonly
to the west of the south point of the circle.

At Rayne, in Aberdeenshire, in a circle of about 60 feet

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 109

diameter, which had consisted apparently of twelve stones —
the pillar-stones from 5 to 6 feet in height, and the re-
cumbent stone a great flat slab 12 feet in length, 7 feet in
breadth, and 1| to 2 feet in thickness — there was found in
the central portion of the area a mass of stones, with a
circular hollow or pit in the centre containing a deposit
of incinerated bones, among which were some fragments of
urns and the half of a broken wrist-guard of polished stone
(similar to that figured at p. 15, as found in the urn at
Fyrish), having one end perforated by three small holes.
This implement, as has been shown, is also of a type which
is frequently associated with implements of bronze, although
no bronze was found with it here.

At Sunhoney, in the parish of Midmar, deposits of
incinerated bones were found throughout a space of 8 feet
diameter in the central part of the area enclosed within
a circle of 12 stones. Of these stones eleven are upright
pillars of red granite, from 5 to 7 feet in height, while
the twelfth is a stone recumbent on its edge, filling the
space between the two pillars that are immediately to the
west of the south point in the circumference of the circle.
This recumbent stone is 1 6 feet in length, 4 J feet in breadth,
and 3 feet in thickness, weighing about 18 tons.

At Ardoyne, in the parish of Oyne, a deposit of in-
cinerated bones, accompanied with fragments of urns, was
found in the centre of a circle, 81 feet in diameter, which
had apparently consisted of twelve stones, of which one was
recumbent, placed, as in the former instances, on the south-
west side of the circle. The recumbent stone measures
8 feet in length, 5| feet in breadth, and about 15 inches
in thickness. One of its adjoining uprights is gone ; the
one remaining is 9 feet high, 2 feet broad, and 2 feet
thick.

At Ardlair, in the parish of Kennethmont, a deposit of

110

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMK8.

incinerated bones was found within the area of a circle about
35 feet diameter (Fig. 125), which appears to have originally
consisted of ten stones. The circle stands on the summit of
a round low hill on the estate of Leith Hall. The upright
stones are not remarkable for size, ranging from 4 to 5 feet
in height, but the recumbent stone is more massive,
measuring 9 feet long, 3i feet broad, and 2 feet thick. There

Fig. 125. — Diagrammatic Ground-plan of the Stoue Circle at Anilair.
From Sketch by C. E. Dalrymple. (35 feet in diameter.)

seems to have been an interior circle not quite concentric
with the exterior stone-setting. The deposit was found
within the interior circle and near its southern side. It
had been placed in a pit about 4 feet in diameter and little
more than 2 feet deep, and covered with two flat stones.

At Castle Fraser several deposits of incinerated bones,
accompanied by fragments of urns, were found within the
area of a circle about 65 feet diameter, which had consisted

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. Ill

of eleven stones, of which ten were upright pillars, and one
a great slab 6 feet 9 inches in length, and 6 feet in breadth,
filling the space between two of the uprights on the south-
west side of the circle. The largest of the standing stones
measured 1 1 feet 9 inches in height, and 4 feet 9 inches in
breadth. In this case, as at Ardlair, there was an interior
circle, 13 feet in diameter, well defined by flat stones set in
the ground close to each other, and showing themselves
above the turf. The whole area of the principal circle, as
well as that of the interior circle, was closely paved with
small boulders, lying about 6 inches underneath the
surface.

From these examples it is clear that whatever may be the
variation in the constructive character of the stone-setting,
or in the general nature of the overground phenomena of
these interments, the essential or underground pheno-
mena are found to be constant in all their typical features :
the burials are sometimes burnt, and sometimes unburnt,
and they are associated with urns and other objects that are
characteristic of the Age of Bronze.

The results of the investigations which in a few other
cases have been conducted by other explorers are in the main
similar.

At Glenballoch, near Blairgowrie, in Perthshire, there is
a circle of four stones embracing an area of about 18 feet
diameter.1 The largest stone is 7 feet long by 6 feet broad,
and 3 feet 3 inches high ; the smallest is 5 feet long by
4 feet 9 inches broad, and 2 feet high. They are not tall
pillar-stones set erect on their ends, but oblong boulders laid
on their broadest sides. Within the circle, a large urn (Fig.
126) containing a deposit of calcined bones was found some
years ago by Mr. Harris, the farmer, and has been since

1 Described by Mr. J. Romilly Allen in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol.
xiv. p. 90.

I l-J

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

placed in the National Museum. It measures 15£ inches in
height, 12 inches diameter over the brim, widening to ti
diameter of 14 inches at the shoulder, from which it tapers
to a base of 6 inches diameter. It is ornamented both out-
side and inside the rim by bands of impressed lines meeting
each other obliquely so as to form what is known as the

Fig. 126.— Urn found in a Stone Circle at Glenballocli
(15 J inches in height).

herring-bone pattern. Below the overhanging rim there is
a wide band of boldly moulded ornament of zigzags, in which
it will be seen that the operator has failed to divide the
space properly in setting out his pattern. But with the
exception of this slight defect, the workmanship and decora-

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 113

tion of this large and handsomely formed vessel is excellent,
and, as Mr. Komilly Allen has well remarked, " will compare
favourably with those of any other production of ceramic art,
ancient or modern."

At Tynrich, Ballinluig, near the junction of the Tummel
with the Tay, in 1855, when a piece of ground was being
prepared for a garden, a circle of 25 feet diameter, composed
of six great stones, varying from 6| to 3| feet high, and set
at nearly equal distances from each other, was trenched over.
Within the area of the circle four different burials of burnt
bones were found, deposited in large cinerary urns, each of
which was about 2 feet high, and over 12 inches in dia-
meter at the mouth. The urns were all destroyed.1

At Badentoy, in the parish of Banchory-Devenick, in
Kincardineshire, Mr. Alexander Thomson found remains of
a deposit of calcined bones and charcoal in the centre of a
circle of standing stones, which had been excavated at least
once before, and the contents disturbed, but the nature of the
deposit was unmistakable. The circle had consisted of
seven stones, of which four had been broken up for building
purposes. Of the three that remained, the largest was 9 feet
high, 3 feet 3 inches broad, and 2 feet thick ; and the smallest
4 feet high, 3 feet broad, and 15 inches thick.

At Kingcausie, half a mile west from Badentoy, five
deposits of incinerated bones, mingled with fragments of urns
and charcoal, were found within the area of a circle con-
sisting of thirteen stones. The stones forming this circle
were smaller than usual, none of them being over 3 feet
high. The circle (Fig. 127) is about 78 feet in diameter,
and contains two smaller concentric circles of flat stones
placed on edge close to each other, the second circle being
1 2 feet within the circumference of the outer circle, and the

Quotation from Perthshire Advertiser, and letter from Rev. Mr. Mae-
millan, Dunkeld, in the Kilkenny Journal, vol. iii. p. 313.

114

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

third enclosing a space of 9 feet diameter in the centre.
The deposits were found within the area of the central
circle.

Q
0

Fig. 127.— Diagrammatic Ground-plan of Stone Circle at Kiugcausie
(78 feet in diameter).

At Auquhorthies of Kingcausie, also in the same parish, a
deposit of calcined bones and fragments of an urn were found
in the centre of a similar triple circle enclosing an area of
1 20 feet in diameter. On its external circumference thirteen
stones remain, the largest of which is 9 feet high. The larger
of the two interior circles is remarkable, as presenting the
same feature which has been already remarked as character-
istic of the external structure of many of the larger circles in
Aberdeenshire, viz., a large recumbent slab placed 80 as to
fill the space between two uprights on the south-west side of
the circle. In this case, only one of the uprights remains

CIKCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

115

5 feet high and 3| feet thick. A cavity shows where the
corresponding upright had stood at no distant date. The
recumbent stone between them measures 7 feet in length
and 4 feet in height. The remainder of this interior circle,
as in the neighbouring circle of Kingcausie, is composed of
smaller stones set on edge end to end. The smaller of the
interior circles, also formed of small stones on edge placed
end to end, encloses a central space of 14 feet in diameter,
within which the deposit was found.

Fig. 128. — Urn found in a Stone Circle at Newton of Montblairy
(13$ inches in height).

On the farm of Newton of Montblairy, in Aberdeenshire,
there was a large stone circle, of which all the stones but one
had been removed. It was excavated by the late Mr. Alex-

116 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

ander Morrison of Bognie many years ago. There is no
detailed record of the excavation, but a large urn (Fig. 128),
which was found filled with burnt bones, was subsequently
sent to the National Museum. It is of the cinerary form,
and more than usually ornate in character, decorated with
simple bands of short oblique lines, and bold projections
underneath the overhanging lip. It measures 13 J inches
high, and the same across the mouth, tapering from the
shoulder to a base of 5 inches diameter.

Recently, in excavating #. small circle in the grounds of
Balbirnie House, near Markiuch, Fife, a number of broken
urns of the cinerary type were disinterred, and among the
burnt bones were several small fragments of a thin blade of
bronze.

Reviewing the whole series of these burials, we find that
they invariably present a certain set of typical characteristics.
They are burials, mostly after cremation, but occasionally of
unburnt bodies, — the burnt and unburnt burials occurring in
the same group, and with similar associations. The objects
accompanying the burials in the character of grave-goods are
small pins of bronze, portions of thin bronze blades, chips of
flint, wrist-guards, and perforated war-axes of polished stone.
Such things as these are not found with every burial, but
urns or fragments of urns of the same forms and ornamenta-
tion as those which we have otherwise ascertained to be
characteristic of Bronze Age interments, are found on all
the sites. In their essential or underground phenomena,
these burials are therefore in all respects similar to the
burials which have been described in the previous Lecture.
But in their non-essential or overground phenomena there
is a very remarkable difference. The burial ground is fenced
off from the surrounding area by a circle of stones, sometimes
mere roughly- shaped natural boulders, rolled into their places
on the circumference of the imaginary circle, enclosing the

CIKCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 117

burials ; at other times tall slabs, set erect on their ends, and
firmly fixed in that position in the soil. Sometimes there is
a trench, or a trench and embankment of earth, surrounding
the circle of stones. At other times there is a differentiation
in the construction of the circle of pillars, which, at its south-
west side, has the space between two pillars filled by a huge
recumbent slab, set usually on its edge. Occasionally the
stone circle is doubled, the inner circle being formed of smaller
slabs placed end to end, with their edges slightly projecting
above the surface of the soil. In rarer cases, there is a third
circle, within the second, of the same character. From the
frequency with which these burial circles are found to con-
tain a plurality of interments, it is obvious that they are not
the monuments of single individuals, but family or tribal
burying-grounds. From the fact that they contain inter-
ments, burnt and unburnt, it is obvious that they were in
use when both these customs were practised, while the
occurrence of bronze in association with the burnt interments
assigns them to the Age of Bronze.

In all these instances, the circular stone-setting, whatever
may be the precise form which it assumes, has been found
to be the external sign by which the burial ground is dis-
tinguished from the surrounding area. Like the cairn, it is
thus the visible mark of the spot of earth to which the
remains of the dead have been consigned. Of course it is
impossible to say, and it is not necessary that it should be
affirmed, that in every stone circle the evidences of interment
will be found. There are cairns and cists that have yielded
no such evidence, but the absence of the evidence in some
cases does not affect the general conclusion drawn from the
concurrent testimony of the many instances in which the
evidence is distinct and unmistakable. There may be stone
circles which have yielded no conclusive evidence of inter-
ment, but the want of evidence in a few cases (to whatever

118

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

cause it may be attributed) cannot affect the general con-
clusion drawn from the many cases in which the evidence
is distinctly concurrent. In other words, we have so many
stone circles which, upon proper investigation, have proved
themselves burying-places, that it is impossible for us to
conclude that those which are still uninvestigated will dis-
close a different purpose for this type of structure.

Fig. 129.— Large Stone Circle at Stennis, Orkney (366 feet in diameter).

The colossal size of their pillar-stones, the magnitude of
the area enclosed, the care and labour expended in trench-
ing and fencing it, are features which give to these singular
constructions a peculiarly impressive character. This im-
pressiveness is specially characteristic of such a circle as
that of Stennis, in Orkney (Fig. 129), which stands
within a circular trench enclosing an area of two and a half
acres. The diameter of the area is 366 feet, and the trench
surrounding it is 29 feet in width, and about 6 feet in depth.
The enclosed area is approached on two sides by level cause-
ways crossing the trench, which are about 17 feet wide.
The circle of pillar-stones stands about 1 3 feet distant from
the inner side of the trench. They are placed about 1 7 feet
apart, on the circumference of a circle of 340 feet in diameter.
The original number of erect stones was probably sixty, of
which there are but thirteen now standing. Ten others are
prostrate, and the stumps or fragments of thirteen more
bring the number still recognisable on the site to thirty-six.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

119

The highest stone standing is 14 feet, the lowest about 6 feet.
Of the twenty-three stones which are either erect or prostrate,
and probably entire, there are fourteen which exceed 10 feet
in height, and five of these exceed 12 feet in height. The
greatest breadth is about 8 feet, the general average being
about 4 feet, and the thickness 1 foot.

Fig. 130. — Smaller Stone Circle at Stenuis (104 feet in diameter).

A smaller circle, now almost obliterated, stood a little to
the south of the greater circle of Stennis. The whole
interior area of the circle (Fig. 130) was raised about 3 feet
above the natural surface, and a circumscribing earthwork of
the same height, rising from a base of about 36 feet in width,
seems to have surrounded it at a distance of 36 feet from
the bottom of the slope of the included mound. Only two
pillar-stones of the circle remain standing, a third lies
prostrate, and the stump of a fourth is visible. Of the two
that are still erect, one is 17 feet high and 6 feet broad,
and the other 15 feet high and 4 feet broad. The prostrate
pillar-stone is 1 9 feet long and 5 feet broad.

At Callernish, in the island of Lewis, there is a very re-
markable stone circle (Fig. 131), with lines of standing
stones proceeding from its circumference, which give the
whole figure of its ground-plan some resemblance to a long-
shafted cross. The circle consists of thirteen stones erected
somewhat irregularly on a circumference of 42 feet in
diameter. A larger stone, 17 feet high above the ground
and 5j feet broad at the base, stands in the centre of the

120

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

4-ft •

•t»

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 121

circle. A line of five stones extends from the circumference
to a distance of 96 feet to the south ; a similar line of four
stones extends 52 feet to the east ; and one of four stones
36 feet to the west. Two parallel lines going off to the north-
ward form an avenue 270 feet in length, and about 27 feet in
width. The total number of stones is forty-eight, and the total
length of the monument, from the extremity of the double
line through the centre of the circle to the extremity of the
single line beyond, is 408 feet, and the length of the trans-
verse arms from point to point across the centre of the circle
is 130 feet.

In 1858, Sir James Matheson caused the peat which had
grown on the site of this monument to be removed. The
average depth of the peat from the surface to a rough cause-
wayed basement in which the stones were imbedded was
5 feet. In the process of the removal of this accumulation,

Fig. 132.— Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn within the Circle at Callernish
(20 feet in diameter).

the workmen uncovered the remains of a circular cairn
(Fig. 132), occupying the space bet ween the centre stone and
the east side of the circle. In the centre of the cairn was a
chamber with regularly built internal walls, and a passage
leading from it to the outside of the cairn, the opening being

122 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

placed between two of the stones of the circle. The chamber
was divided into two compartments by slabs placed across
the floor, leaving an opening between their edges a little less
than 3 feet wide. Beyond these slabs the inner compart-
ment was formed of dry-walling in the sides, and a long slab
set on edge at the back. The passage was about 6 feet in
length, and 2 feet wide, entering the chamber between two
slabs set on end facing the two on each side of the entrance
to the inner compartment. The first compartment was
6 feet 9 inches from side to side, aud 4 feet 3 inches from
front to back, the second, 4 feet 4 inches from side to side,
and 2 feet 1 inch from front to back, on the floor, widening
upwards in consequence of a slight inclination of the slab at
the back. With the exception of a single stone, which was
supposed to have been a lintel, there was no appearance of a
roof, and there is nothing on the record of the excavation to
show whether the roof of the chamber had fallen in, or
whether it had been removed. It is not even stated what
was the height to which the side-walls were found standing.
But it is obvious at a glance that here we have a very pecu-
liar construction, — a cairn containing a chamber divided into
compartments, and furnished with a passage opening to the
outside of the cairn. The general character and relations
of this type of structure will become apparent when we
have reached a stage at which we shall be able to deal
with a number of examples of cairns that are similarly
chambered.

In the meantime I call attention to the occurrence of this
small chambered cairn in association with a great stone
circle, because it is the great stone-setting, and not the
small cairn, which is plainly the principal member of the
composite structure, and because the form which here appears
in a subordinate character is a cairn which is chambered,
and not a cairn which covers a cist Hereafter, when we

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 123

come to deal with the chambered cairn as the typical form
of the Stone Age burial structure, we shall find them
occasionally encircled by stone-settings or circles of standing
stones, but we shall find the relative positions of the two
members of the composite structure reversed — the cairn
being then the principal object, and the stone circle its sub-
ordinate adjunct. In this instance at Callernish we have to
do with a composite structure which is principally a stone-
setting, that is, a structure in which the idea of the cairn
has given way to the idea of the circle. We have already
seen that when the circle is associated with a cisted cairn —
which is a structural form of a lower type than the
chambered form — the circle always appears as the principal
member. Hence it appears that the circular stone- setting,
which originally arose as an adjunct to the chambered cairns
of the Stone Age, acquired its dignity and importance in the
subsequent period by the degradation of the cairn structure
which it encircled, and came at last to stand alone, as the
most distinguishing and characteristic mark of a Bronze Age
burial. In this capacity it sometimes appears entirely alone,
at other times it is itself surrounded by a trench, or by a
trench and rampart or ring-fence of earth. But whether it
may be the surrounding enclosure of a cairn, or whether it
may be itself enclosed by a trench and rampart, or whether it
may stand alone, the concurrent testimony of all the investi-
gations of its actual phenomena results in this, that in every
case in which the investigation has disclosed evidence of
purpose or of use, it has always been evidence of included
burials. No other evidence indeed exists, and the conclusion
which is unavoidable is therefore not assailable on the ground
that it is not according to evidence.

It is not possible, in the present state of our knowledge, to
proceed further than this with certainty. We are now deal-
ing with typical characteristics, that are not exclusively

1 24 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

confined to a limited area of Scotland or of Britain, or even
of Europe. Burials associated with overground phenomena
that are in the main similar to those that have now been
described are found over a wide area of Northern and
Western Europe. But over this wide area of their known
occurrence, the nature and character of their underground
phenomena are by no means constant. For instance, although
stone circles occur in considerable numbers in Scandinavia,1
and although in that area they are also found enclosing
burials after cremation, yet the essential characteristics and
accompaniments of the interments assign them to the Early
Iron Age, while in Britain they are exclusively of the Age
of Bronze.

From these facts it appears, that while a certain uniformity
in the phenomena of the burials exists in smaller areas, there

1 In Norway and Sweden stone circles are relatively of very much
rarer occurrence than grave mounds. They are not generally remarkable,
either for the size of the circles themselves, or for the massiveness of the
stones of which they are composed, and they do not present the
jteculiarity which has been so often noted among the circles of the north-
eastern districts of Scotland, of having the south-west side of the circle
distinguished by a great recumbent stone tilling the space between two up-
rights. The common Scandinavian form is that of a simple circle composed
of from eight to thirteen stones ; occasionally there are two concentric
circles, one within the other, and sometimes, as in some of the Scottish
examples, the inner circle is composed of small flat stones set on their
edges, end to end, and scarcely showing themselves above the turf.
Sometimes also the whole space within the circle is paved with small
flat slabs. Occasionally there is a central stone within the circle, and
not unfrequently the form of the external stone-setting, instead of being
circular, is square or oblong, or even triangular. The circles of Scandi-
navia are popularly imagined to have been dom-rings or thing-steads, and
but few of them have as yet been systematically explored. The results
of their investigation, however, have been similar to the results of the
investigation of the Scottish circles, with this difference, that where
burials have been found within them, they have been invariably burials
of the Iron Age. — See Nicolay sen's Sbratt Fornlevninger, under the
word kred* ; and see also the Foreningen for Nortke Mindtsmaerkerg
Bevaring—Aarsberttning for 1868, p. 139; 1869, pp. 13, 119, and 120;
1872, p. 12; and 1877, p. 230.

CIECLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 125

is a wide diversity exhibited in more extended areas. As
our knowledge of the facts increases in its range and
specialty, as the nature of these variations is gradually
ascertained, and their limits defined with precision, the time
will come when their significance with relation to the areas
in which they are manifested may be determined. At
present we are unable to define with any degree of accuracy
the limits of the area over which stone circles are found,
and equally unable to say within what limits they are found
to contain burials assignable to the Ages of Bronze or Iron.
But this we are in a position to say, from existing evidence,
that, so far as they have yet been investigated in Scotland,
their nature and purpose has been clearly determined
to be sepulchral; and that in so determining their nature
and purpose, we draw this conclusion from the same
evidence and by the same process by which we determine
the nature and purpose of urns, or cists, or cairns, or any
unrecorded and uninscribed variety of sepulchral monu-
ment.

The same conclusion appears to be deducible with
reference to another class of monumental stone-settings, con-
sisting of groups of upright stones which are not arranged in
a circular form. These are much more rarely met with than
the circular groups ; l and the available evidence regarding
their period and purpose is therefore drawn from a basis of
investigation which is less extensive, although, so far as it
goes, it is quite as definite and distinct in its indications of

1 So far as we know at present, their occurrence in Scotland is confined
to the counties of Caithness and Sutherland, but there is reason to be-
lieve that they also occur in Wales. On a ffrid or mountain enclosure
called Ffrid-can-awen, in the neighbourhood of Pentrevocles, there were
recently discovered three cists containing burnt bones, and near them a
number of parallel rows of erect stones. Another series of parallel rows
of erect stones, consisting of sixteen rows, is situated about a mile and a
half distant from those already mentioned.

126 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

sepulchral associations. Their area, so far as is yet known, is
chiefly confined to the extreme northern part of the mainland
of Scotland.

On the north side of a small valley in the Yarhouse Hills,
in the parish of Wick, Caithness, and near the Hill Fort of
Brochwhin or Garrywhin, which I have already described, l
there is a series of rows of small grey slabs (Fig. 133), like
the headstones of a country churchyard, call set with their
broad faces looking across the lines. They lie on the slope
of the valley, the lines ascending towards the crown of the
slope, and coming closer together as they ascend, so that,
when looked at from above, they present the appearance of
a radiating or fan-shaped group. A few feet from the
termination of the narrow end of the group there was a small
circular knoll, about 35 feet in diameter, and 5 feet high in
the centre, thickly covered with turf and heather. When
its interior had been laid bare, it was found to be a sepulchral
cairn, in the centre of which was a cist, placed slightly below
the original surface, and measuring 3 feet 5 inches in length,
2 feet 4 inches in width, and 1 foot 9 inches deep. The
sides were composed of four slabs set on edge, but on one
side a thin slab was inserted with about 4 inches of rubble
between it and the outer slab, thus narrowing the internal
breadth to 1 foot 10 inches. The cist lay nearly east and
west It had an enormous covering-stone, and the bottom
was simply the subsoil on which the whole cairn rested.
At the east end lay the fragments of a bowl-shaped urn,
ornamented with impressed markings of a twisted cord, and
at the same end of the cist we found the enamel crowns of a
few human molars. The burial had been unburnt, and so
complete had been the decay of the bones that the only
vestiges of the whole skeleton remaining were the enamel
crowns of the teeth. Two roughly-shaped flint flakes, with

1 Scotland in Pagan Times : The Iron Affe, p. 273.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 127

S v

/ V

\ O !

0 Q

•

o o

0 0

Fig. 133. — Stone-setting of six parallel rows radiating from a Sepulchral
Cairn at Garrywhin, Caithness (200 feet in length).

128 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

secondary working on the edges, were found beside the frag-
ments of the urn. Although there was no evidence of the
presence of bronze, the form of the urn and the general
characteristics of the interment were precisely those which
have been so often remarked as occurring in association
with implements of bronze. The cairn, taken by itself, thus
differed in no respect from many smaller and larger cairns
of the Bronze Age which have been described in the preced-
ing Lecture. But taken in connection with the associated
group of standing stones, it certainly presented a striking
dissimilarity of external feature. Yet this dissimilarity was
only on the surface ; the essential features of the burial were
those of the general group of Bronze Age burials. Even in
the features that were dissimilar, there was a recognisable
relationship of type. The cairn was associated with a
setting of standing stones, although that setting had not been
arranged in the circular form with which we have now be-
come so familiar. The cairn was small, and the stones of
the setting which was thus associated with it were also small
in comparison with the great monoliths of some of the larger
circles ; but they were not smaller than .the stones of many
circles, and though they assumed this peculiar arrangement,
they were — like the circles — found in apparent association
as the adjuncts to a sepulchral cairn. From this cairn the
group of standing stones extended in six diverging lines
to a distance of 200 feet. Close to the cairn the width
across the whole six lines was about 50 feet, while at the
further extremity the whole width was 100 feet. The stones
were mostly small flattish slabs, .few of them exceeding 2 A
feet in height and the same in width, irregular in form, and
placed at irregular intervals from each other. They were
firmly fixed in the ground, being frequently wedged between
two smaller stones placed at either side in a shallow pit
which had been dug to receive their bases. The whole

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES.

129

number of stones in the group is now less than fifty, but
originally it was probably much greater.

On the other side of the valley there is another cairn of
similar character, having a central cist of somewhat larger
dimensions, which had been long previously opened and
rifled. The cist, which lay north-west and south-east, was
beautifully constructed of four large slabs, and measured
internally 5 feet long, 2 J feet wide, and 2 1 inches deep. The
stones of the cairn had been partially removed for utilitarian
purposes, but what remained of it showed a diameter of at
least 18 feet. From the cairn there extended the broken
remains of a group of lines of standing stones, which had
been apparently at one time of even greater extent than that
on the north side of the valley.
Enough remained to demon- n

9 0

strate the occurrence of a Q ° °

similar association of a group n

of stones set in irregular rows,
in association with a sepul-
chral cairn, which was situated
at one end of the group.

At Camster, in the same
county, there is another group
of stones set in rows (Fig. 134),
apparently in connection with
a cairn. The group consists
of six lines running nearly
north and south, with an
extreme length of 105 feet,
the width across the whole of
the lines at the head being 30

Q
0

a o

Q 0

3
0

Fig. 134. — Stone-setting of six
parallel rows at Camster,
Caithness (105 feet in
length).

feet, and at the further extremity 54 feet. As in the other
instances, the stones are small flattish slabs, none of them
exceeding 2| feet in height, placed with their flat sides
9

130

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

looking across the direction of the lines. At a little distance
from the head or narrow end of the group are the remains
of a small cairn with a central cist, in which were the
remnants of an unburnt skeleton.

On the east side of the

0 Loch of Yarhouse, in a place
o locally known as the Battle
Moss, on the estate of Thrum-
ster, there is a group of lines
of standing stones (Fig. 135),
consisting of eight rows of
irregular length. The lines
run nearly north and south ;
the stones are somewhat irre-
gularly placed, and there are
now many gaps in the rows.
The extreme length is 384 feet,
one of the lines extending to
more than double the length
of the others.1 The second
longest line is about 170 feet
in length, and the remaining
six about 130 feet. The
largest stones of which this
group is composed do not
exceed 2£ feet in height, by
2£ feet in breadth, and 15
inches in thickness. They
are for the most part firmly
fixed in the soil, and often
wedged at the bases by
smaller stones packed in on either side. There is now no

1 This is the line to the right of the group, which extends much further
to the north than is shown on the plan.

9 0

6 0 ° °

0 0 » °

o o

• •

0 "°

00 0

0 0

c ft

0 0

a o

P 0

Q a

0 „

D°

i
n

Pig. 186.— Stone-setting of eight
parallel rows at Yarhouse,
Caithness.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 131

appearance of a cairn or cist in connection with the
group, and excavation at different parts of the lines
failed to yield any evidence of associated interments.

On the hillside of the Many Stanes at Clyth, also in
Caithness, is the most remarkable group of this description
(Fig. 1 3 6). It consists of twenty- two rows of small flat stand-

0° °° °Q° °Q °

°o °* ° °° o o

fl 00 o" 00 *floo

° ° * 0 OOQ ° 0* D 0

G o n 0 « O 0 rt 0

Q O DoODO° 0°

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ^ 0

" $000000 o 0 0

00 ^ ^ 0 Q 0 p 0 ° OOp

0 0 0 0 ac> 0 °n° °

° \ ODOO flo ' ° n ° o

JOoO 0' a 00

flofl° ° ^

° 0 n ° fl 0 P 0 °

0 0 0 0 0 0

n O ° rt Q

°W0 OZ?/j^ . 0

aoo°o°QQQD oPa° °c00

o ° a D o a 0' o

° ° 0 0° 0^0

0 DO

Pig. 136.— Stone-setting of twenty-two rows at the Hill of the Many Stanes,
Clyth, Caithness (150 feet in length).

ing stones, the lines averaging from 145 to 150 feet in length.
Like most of the other groups, the width across the lines is
gradually increased from one end to the other by a slight
divergence of the lines, so that, while the width across the
narrow end, looking towards the north, is 1 1 8 feet, the width

132 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIME&.

at the further end is 188 feet. The lines lie on the south
slope of the hill, and diverge from north to south down the
slope. The largest stones are about 3 feet high, 3 feet wide,
and 15 to 18 inches thick. There is now no trace of an
associated cairn or burial. The total number of stones now
standing in this group exceeds four hundred.1

A series of groups consisting in the aggregate of upwards
of 150 stones, arranged in irregular rows, and clusters of rows,
at Lierabol, in the parish of Kildonan, Sutherlandshire, is
associated with a group of cairns of the Bronze Age. One
of the cairns, which contained a central cist, 4 feet long,
in which was a burnt interment and some beads of jet, had
a circle of stones set at intervals around its base ; and close
beside one of the stones in the circle was found an urn of
the cinerary type inverted upon a small flat slab, at a depth
of 2 feet under the surface, and covering a deposit of burnt
human bones, among which was a small oval tanged blade
of bronze.*

At Achkinloch, in the parish of Latheron, Caithness, there
is an example of a stone-setting of very peculicir form (Fig.
137), which I notice here because it is the only instance of
its kind known to me. It is in form a long oval, somewhat
irregular in outline, and wider at one end than at the other.
The two ends of the figure are also dissimilar in this respect,
that, while the oval outline is complete at the wider end, the
narrow end has been left incomplete and open. The stones
are set with their broader faces at right angles to the direc-
tion of the lines, and not parallel to or in the plane of the

1 These Caithness stone-settings were first described by me in a " Re-
port on the Ancient Remains of Caithness," printed in the Memoirs of
the Anthropological Society, London, voL ii. p. 251. They were subse-
quently visited and planned by Sir Henry Dryden, and extracts from his
Notes regarding them are given in an Appendix to Mr. James Fergusaon's
well-known work on Rude Stone Monuments.

' This blade is figured in the previous Lecture, at p. 22.

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 133

lines, as in all the groups that have just been described.1
The length from the closed to the open end of the oval is
226 feet, and the width in the middle, from one side to the

O
0

Fig. 137. — Stone-setting of peculiar form at Achkinloch,
Latheron, Caithness (226 feet in length).

other, 110 feet, inside measurement. At the open extremity
the two sides are 85 feet apart. Supposing that the gaps

1 As a general rule, to which I know no other exception, the stones of
these groups of parallel rows, and the stones of stone circles, are set with
their long faces in the line of the direction of the rows, or in the line of
the curve of the circle, and never across the line.

134 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

have been occasioned by the removal or overthrow of some
of the stones, they appear to have been set up at intervals of
about 8 feet along the outline of the oval figure, but there is
nothing to show why that form was preferred. There are now
only thirty-six stones remaining in position, but if the gaps were
filled at the 8-feet intervals, the number would be fifty-four.
The stones are larger than those of the groups which have
just been described, the largest now standing being upwards
of 5 feet above the ground, and others of less height measur-
ing from 4 to 5 feet in breadth, and 12 to 20 inches in thick-
ness. There is at the wide end of the oval a cist-like con-
struction of four slabs, set in the ground, and abutting against
one of the standing stones. It is not associated with the
remains of a cairn, and beyond the fact that it appears to be
a cist, there is no actual evidence of its having contained
a burial. Without this evidence it would be unscientific to
attribute a sepulchral purpose to this unique variety of
monument, and we must therefore be prepared to leave the
questions of its age and purpose in abeyance until the
evidence has been supplied by other examples of similar
type which may yet be discovered.

But we are not left in the same uncertainty with regard
to the other varieties of monumental stone-settings with
which I have dealt in this Lecture. We have now seen that
in all cases in which these groups of rows of standing stones
have yielded evidence of association or purpose, they have
been associated with a purpose which was sepulchral. We
have previously seen that the same thing was fully demon-
strated with regard to the circles. It appears therefore that
whatever may be the form assumed by the stone-setting —
whether it may be a circle or a setting in parallel rows — the
conclusion is inevitable (if it is to be a conclusion drawn
from evidence), that they are the external adjuncts of Bronze
Age burial. It appears also on review of the evidence that

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 135

the variations in the form or arrangement of the stone-setting
are not accompanied by corresponding variations in the burial
customs. In point of fact, the whole tenor of the available
evidence goes to show that the essential features of the
burials remain constant throughout a wide range of variation
in the form of the external and visible memorials of the
interment, and it thus becomes clear that it is not these
variable overground features, but the persistent similarities
of the underground phenomena that are the typical
characteristics.

By the recognition of this, as the legitimate result of
their scientific investigation, the stone circles of Scotland
are certainly divested of much of the unscientific interest
and all the quasi-historical relations that have been attri-
buted to them. But it is in singular contrast to the fanciful
theories that have prevailed in recent times regarding them,
that the writer of the very first paper read to a scientific
Society on the Stone Circles of Scotland approaches the
subject of their origin and purpose. In a letter written
to John Aubrey (the inventor of the Druidical theory), in
1692, and subsequently communicated to the Society of
Antiquaries,1 Professor Garden of Aberdeen describes .
the stone circles of the district typically, and treats the
question of their origin and purpose in a purely scientific
manner. He states that they are monuments of tall un-
polished stones set upon end, and placed circularly, not
contiguous to each other, but at some distance: the
commonest variety have but one circle of stones standing
at nearly equal distances ; the second variety is a similar
circle with a large broad stone standing on edge, which
fills up the whole space betwixt two of those stones which

1 A copy of Professor Garden's letter was read to the Society of
Antiquaries of London, Dec. 4, 1766, and printed in Archceologia, vol. i.
p. 336.

1 36 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

stand on end ; and the third variety has a circle of smaller
stones within the circle of the great stones. As to what
is known about them, he says they are generally called
Standing Stones, and the people regard them as places of
Pagan worship. He then goes on to state his own con-
clusion regarding them — a conclusion which is worthy of
our attention, both on account of its nature and of the
manner in which it is deduced : — " Albeit from the general
tradition that these monuments were places of Pagan
worship, and from the historical knowledge we have that
the superstition of the Druids did take place in Britain,
we may rationally collect that these monuments have been
temples of the Druids, yet I have found nothing hitherto,
either in the names of these monuments, or tlw tradition that
goes about them, which doth particularly relate to the Druids
or point them out." But he adds that many persons yet
alive declare that they did see ashes of some burnt matter
digged out of the bottom of a circle set about with stones
placed close together in the centre of one of these monu-
ments which is yet standing (1692) near the church of Keig.
It is clear from this lucid statement that in the end of the
seventeenth century there was no tradition among the people
connecting these monuments with the Druids.1 They were
simply regarded as places of Pagan worship. In so regard-
ing them the people among whom this attribution was
current may have been perpetuating a conjecture or hand-
ing down a tradition ; but there is no evidence to which we
can appeal for corroboration of the averment.

In point of fact, there is nothing which is of the nature
of evidence by which the stone circles of Scotland can be

1 It is a most suggestive and significant fact tbat in the first general
Index to the Archceologia (or Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries
of London), the entry for " Stone Circles " is given as follows : " Circles of
Stones, see under Stones ;" while in the second Index, compiled nearly
forty years later, the entry is : "Stones, Circles of, see under Druids."

CIRCLES, AND SETTINGS OF STANDING STONES. 137

assigned to any race or historic order of men. Taking them
at their own testimony, the only evidence they yield amounts
to this, that they are the funeral marks of our Pagan pre-
decessors of the Age of Bronze. Their culture and civilisa-
tion, as thus dimly disclosed to us, are strangely unfamiliar
to our experience, and on this account we do not readily
perceive the true significance of the phenomena by which
they are manifested. That significance will only be fully
revealed when the evidence is completed by the description
of the manifestations of the Bronze Age culture and
civilisation which are not connected with its burial usages,
and these will form the subject of the succeeding Lecture.
But looking at the obvious fact that so many of the relics
which have been described in this and the preceding
Lecture are objects constructed for definite purposes in
every- day life, and that they have been devoted to the
grave by the feeling which was of old termed " pious," in
relation to the manner in which it regarded the honour of
the dead, it seems impossible to doubt that it is culture
and that it is civilisation that are thus manifested, although
they are manifested by unfamiliar phenomena. Such
devotion in honour of the dead implies an attitude of mind
which is inconceivable apart from the existence of culture.
Through these phenomena there is discernible a moral
feeling prevailing over the greed of gold — placing most
massive and costly ornaments within the urn, or on the
rough slab that covers the grave-chest, and leaving them
there undisturbed with but a few inches of earth to cover
them. We perceive that the cairn, the circle of erect
stones, the broad deep trench which marks off the grave
ground from the surrounding area, are memorials of moral
significance, whether they be regarded as the products of
filial piety and family affection, or of more public sympathy
and appreciation of worth. Looking at the magnitude of

138

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

the work in some cases, or at the immensity of the masses
of the individual stones in others, we discern indications of
the consciousness of power and ability to overcome the
forces of nature, while also recognising the clearest evidence
of the existence of organisation and co-operation which are
the necessary concomitants of civilisation. And when to
this indirect testimony we add the direct evidence of
technical skill and artistic taste supplied by the presence
of the highly decorated urns and the various objects of use or
ornament, in stone and bone, bronze and gold, amber and jet,
which accompany the remains interred in these construc-
tions, we may well ask — to what we shall attribute these
various manifestations if it was not culture in the individual
that produced the skill and developed the taste, and if it was
not civilisation in the society in which he lived and moved
that furnished the means and the leisure which made that
culture possible.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 139

LEGTUEE III.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE.

IN the two previous Lectures I have dealt with the sepulchral
remains of the Bronze Age as they are found in cists and
cemeteries, in cairns and stone circles. There is no example
of a dwelling or a stronghold which can be assigned with
certainty to the Bronze Age in Scotland ; and the remaining
materials from which conclusions may be drawn with regard
to the culture and civilisation of that period consist of the
weapons, implements, and ornaments of the people which
have been preserved in the soil, though not associated with
burials.

In this Lecture I shall describe the principal hoards or
deposits of these articles which have been found in Scotland,
and from them determine the form and character of the
different varieties of arms, implements, and ornaments that
were in use in the Age of Bronze.

In 1869, in digging the foundations of a house in Grosvenor
Crescent, Edinburgh, a very remarkable deposit of bronze
weapons was discovered. The precise number of the articles is
not known, but it is stated by an eye-witness that there must
have been fourteen or fifteen swords, several of which
presented traces of the scabbards and the side-plates of the
hilt. With them there were also found a broken bronze

140

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

pin, with a flat circular head ornamented with concentric
rings (Fig. 138), a hollow circular button or belt-mounting

(Fig. 139), furnished with

b.6J?r*'^^. loops on the concave side

wn i&\ (Fig* 140)' and a plain

Li. I •nil r^uS °f hronze, 3 inches dia-

\Lj wlj meter, formed of a cylindri-

^fc£ <ffl cal rod, little more than

\ inch thick. Only four
of the swords are now

Fig. 188.— Head of Bronze Pin „„ - ,,

(actual size). known. Three of these

have flat handle - plates,

pierced with rivet-holes, but without pommels. The
fourth sword (Fig. 141) is different, inasmuch as it has

Figs. 139 and 140.— Obverse and reverse of Bronze Mounting (actual size).

the grip and pommel of the handle complete, and cast
in bronze. It is a short sword, its whole length being
only 20 inches. The blade is leaf-shaped, the hilt with-
out a guard, but with a grip of 4 inches in length, ter-
minating in a rounded pommel 2 inches diameter and \\
inch in height The grip is £ inch thick, and 1 inch in
width at the centre, widening to 1^ inch at its junction with
the blade. A break in the pommel at one side reveals the
fact that the core of hardened clay on which it was cast is
still within it. Both hilt and pommel are pierced by holes,

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BEONZE AGE. 141

which at first sight suggest the rivet-holes in the handle-
plates of the swords from which the mountings of the grip
are wanting. But the holes
in this hilt do not pass through,
and they are not opposite each
other. Some other explanation
of their purpose is therefore
necessary. I have stated that
the clay core on which the
handle was cast is still within
it. When the core was placed
within the mould, it was neces-
sary that it should be supported
in its true position in the cavity
of the mould, and this could
not be more conveniently ac-
complished than by pins or
projections which would leave
corresponding holes in the
casting of metal.

In the British Museum
there is a sword which formed
part of a similar hoard of
bronze objects found at Tarves,
Aberdeenshire. It closely re-
sembles the sword last de-
scribed,but wants the side-plates
of the hilt. The rivets remain
fixed in the handle-plate, and
this may be taken as evidence
that the side-plates which made
up the roundness of the grip,
and were secured in their places by these rivets, were made
of more perishable material than bronze — probably of bone,

Fig. 141. — Bronze Sword found
in Edinburgh (20 inches in
length).

142 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

horn, or wood. The rounded pommel, however, is of bronze,
and when the side-plates of the hilt were in position, with
their ends covered by the pommel, the resemblance to the
Edinburgh specimen would have been so complete that a
matrix modelled from the Tarves sword would have given a
cast in bronze of the entire weapon, almost precisely similar
to the sword found in Edinburgh, With the Tarves specimen
there were also found two other swords of the same type as
those found witli the Edinburgh specimen, having flat handle-
plates pierced with rivet-holes, but without pommels. With
the swords at Tarves there were also found two bronze pins,
with flat circular heads, like those found at Edinburgh, and
a scabbard-end of bronze 5i inches in length.

The first donation presented to the Museum of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland, on the 16th January 1781,
consisted of a large portion of a hoard of bronze objects which
had been dredged up from the bottom of the loch of
Duddingston, near Edinburgh. Sir Alexander Dick of
Prestonfield, who had established a process of marl-dredging
in the loch for agricultural purposes, thus describes the
circumstances of their discovery :l "In the third year of my
progress, as my operations were proceeding northward, about
150 yards from the verge of the King's Park, the people
employed in dredging in places deeper than usual, after
having removed the first surface of fat blackish mould, got
into a bed of shell-marl, from five to seven feet deep, from
which they brought up in the collecting leather bag a very
weighty substance, which, when examined as it was thrown
into the marl-boat, was a heap of swords, spears, and other
lumps of brass." The composition of the hoard presented to
the Museum2 consisted of twenty-three portions of spear-
heads; twenty-nine pieces of broken swords; a ring and staple

1 MS. letters to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1780-81.

2 Smellie's Account qf the Antiquarian Society, p. 39.

WKAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 143

of large size, which we now recognise as one of the side-handles
of a large caldron of thin beaten bronze — probably the vessel
in which the hoard was contained. The whole of the articles
appear to have been purposely broken. The fragments of
spear-heads are portions of large weapons, with long hollow
sockets and leaf-shaped blades, the socket prolonged as a
tapering cylindrical midrib to the point of the blade, and cored
to within an inch or so of the point. Some have the blade
pierced by segmental openings on either side of the midrib.
The fragments of the swords are mostly less than 6 inches
in length. They show that the form of the weapon was a
leaf-shaped blade, terminating in a flattened hilt-plate pierced
by rivet-holes for securing the side-plates which made up
the grip.

In making the Queen's Drive round Arthur's Seat in 1846,
on the face of the hill overlooking the same loch, two swords
of bronze similar to these were found imbedded in the soil.
They are both entire, and they thus show the perfect form
of the swords which were found in the loch below. One
measures 26^ inches in length, the other 24f inches. The
form is peculiar, and unlike any variety of sword with which
we have become acquainted in our survey of the weapons of
the Iron Age. The blade is leaf-shaped, widest at about
two-thirds of its length from the handle-plate, which is flat,
and pierced by rivet-holes for the attachment of the mount-
ings of bone or horn, which must have made up the round-
ness of the grip.

At Gogar, near Edinburgh, a bronze sword and scabbard-
point were found in a gravel-pit in 1811. The sword (Fig.
142, No. 1) is leaf-shaped, with flat handle-plate, pierced by
rivet-holes, and measures 22 inches in length. The scabbard-
end (Fig. 142, No. 2) is of the same form as the Tarves one,
and 4£ inches in length. In the same gravel-pit, but whether
associated directly with the sword and scabbard-point or not

144

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

is not stated, there were found a small penannular gold
ornament of peculiar form (Fig. 142, No. 3) and a circular
penannular buckle of bronze (Fig. 142, No. 4), 3 inches

Fig. 142.— No. 1, Bronze Sword, 22 inches in length ; No. 2, Scabbard-tip, 4|
inches long ; No. 3, Penannular Gold Ring, actual size ; No. 4, Bronze
Ruckle, 2 inches in diameter. All found at Gogar.

diameter. The gold ornament is of a type which is rare in
Scotland, only one other specimen being known (Fig. 227),
but it has occasionally occurred in England, and more
frequently in Ireland. The bronze buckle or brooch is
also of peculiar form and ornamentation, and is the only
specimen of its kind known in Scotland. It is closely allied
to a type of buckle of the Iron Age which is occasionally
met with in Anglo-Saxon and Norwegian interments.1

At Cauldhame, near Brechin, in 1853, a hoard was dis-
covered, consisting of four leaf-shaped swords, a scabbard-

1 One closely resembling the Gogar specimen is figured in Akerman's
Pagan Saxondom, PL xviii. Fig. 4. It was found at Rugby, and is
described as a form frequently met with in Anglo-Saxon interments.
Another is figured in the Foremngenfor Xartkt Mindtsmaerker* Bevaring,
1878.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 145

point (Fig. 143), and a bronze spear-head, which is described
as one of the largest examples hitherto found in Scotland.
Two of the swords and the scabbard-tip
are in the Museum. One of the swords
measures 24 inches in length, the other
is imperfect. They are leaf-shaped, with
flat handle-plates pierced with rivet-
holes. The scabbard-tip, which closely
resembles the Gogar example, is 5|
inches in length, If inch in breadth at
the upper part, and | inch at the
lower end, the opening for the blade
being f inch wide in the middle.

On the north side of the Point of
Sleat, in the island of Skye, in or about
the year 1851, a deposit of bronze weapons
was found in the moss. The deposit
consisted of a bronze sword (Fig. 144),
two spear-heads, and a long slender bronze
pin with an expanded circular cup-shaped
head. The sword is leaf-shaped, with flat
handle-plate pierced by rivet-holes. It
measures 22| inches in length, the greatest width of the
blade being If inch. The spear-heads have leaf-shaped

Fig. 143. —Sheath-
end of Bronze
(5£ inches in
length).

Fig. 144. —Bronze Sword, Spear-head, and Pin found in Skye.

blades, with long cylindrical sockets continued up the centre
of the blade and tapering to the point. The socket is pierced
10

14G

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

by a single rivet-hole on either side for attachment to the
shaft. The whole length of each of the spear-heads is 7£
inches, and the greatest width of the blade 1 £ inch. The
pin is of great size, 10| inches long, nearly £ inch in diameter
at the upper part, where it expands into a cup-shaped head,
i inch in depth, and | inch in diameter. With these objects
there was also found a socketed implement of a curiously
bent leaf-shaped form, 4 inches in length. It is of the same
type as another implement here figured with it (Fig. 145),

Fig. 145. — Bent Bronze Implements found in Skye, and at Wester Ord,
Invergordon(4 and 4J inches in length).

which was found, with five other undescribed objects of
bronze, some of which are stated to have been axe-heads and
rings, under the corner of a large earth-fast boulder at
Wester Ord, near Invergordon, in Eoss-shire. The hoard
appeared to have been wrapped in a cloth, and concealed
under the boulder. The bent leaf-shaped and socketed
implement is 41 inches in length. These two are the only
examples of the type known in Scotland.

At Achtertyre, near Elgin, in 1868, a hoard of bronze
articles was found in ploughing a mossy field. The deposit
consisted of two spear-heads, one socketed axe-head with a
loop at one side of the socket, two penannular rings with
slightly expanded ends, some fragments of broken rings,
probably four in number, and portions of a ring of metal
of a greyish colour and friable, which on analysis yielded no
copper, but only tin and lead in the proportion of nearly

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 147

four parts of the former metal to one of the latter.1 The
spear-heads, the largest of which (Fig. 146) is 11| inches in
length, have leaf-shaped blades, and
cylindrical sockets, tapering regularly
from the base, and cored almost to the
point of the blade. In the socket, about
an inch above the base, are two rivet-
holes placed in the plane of the blade,
for the attachment of the weapon to
its shaft. The smaller of the two
spear-heads is broken and incomplete.
The socketed axe-head is also broken,
and the thinner part of the blade
wanting. The two penannular rings
(one of which is represented in
Fig. 147) are slightly oval in shape,
swelling into knobbed extremities at
the ends. They are about 3 inches in
greatest diameter, and are thus pre-
cisely of the same form, and nearly
of the same size, as the penannular
rings of gold found on the cover of
the cist at Alloa.2

At Gospertie, in Fife, about 1822,
a hoard of bronze objects was found,
consisting of six spear-heads and
about a dozen axe-heads. Of the
whole hoard only one axe-head (which
was fortunately sent to the Museum) is now known

Fig. 146.— Bronze Spear-
head found with
other articles of
Bronze at Achter-
tyre, Elgin (11£
inches in length).

1 According to the analysis by Dr. Stevenson Macadam the precise
proportions are: — Tin 78*66, Lead 21-34=100. "These proportions,"
he says, " represent a solder which would fuse about 365° F., whilst the
plumber's sealed solder of the present day contains 1 of tin to 2 of lead,
and fuses at 441° F.— Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. ix. p. 438.

- See the description and figure in the previous Lecture, p. 64.

148

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 147. Penannnlar Ring of Bronze found with other articles at
Achtertyre, Elgin (actual size).

Fig*. 148, 149.— Bronze Spear-heads found at Torran, near Ford, Loch Awe
(12 inches and 10J inches in length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 149

to exist. It is a socketed axe-head 3| inches long by
2 inches broad, having a loop at one side of the socket and
a double moulding passing through the loop.

In digging a ferret out of a rabbit-hole at Torran, near
Ford,at the south end of Loch Awe, recently, a hoard of bronze
objects was found, consisting of two spear-heads and a
socketed gouge. The spear-heads (Figs. 148, 149) are of
different sizes, the largest measuring 1 2 inches in length, and
2 inches across the widest part of the blade, the socket,
which extends 3 inches beyond the base of the blade, pro-
vided with rivet-holes in the plane of the blade, and cored
almost to the point of the weapon. The smaller of the two
spear-heads, which is similar to the other in every respect
but that of size, measures 10£ inches in length and 2^ inches
across the widest part of the blade, but has lost a portion of
the lower end of the socket. The gouge (Fig. 150) is not

Fig. 150. — Bronze Socketed Gouge, found with two Spear-heads at
Torran, near Ford, Loch Awe (actual size).

unlike the modern form, except that it is socketed. It
measures 3 inches in length, and is here figured of the full
size. It is almost exactly like another implement of the
same character found with a similar but larger hoard of tools
and weapons, which is next to be described.

In trenching a gravel hillock at Monadh-mor, Killin,
Perthshire, in 1868, a hoard of bronze objects was discovered.
They lay all together, at a depth of about a foot beneath the
surface. The articles of which the hoard was composed
were as follows : —

(1) A portion of a bronze sword of small size (Fig. 151),

1 50 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

with leaf-shaped blade, having no rivet-holes in the handle-
plate, which is furnished with a somewhat prominent mid-
rib on both sides. The fragment measures 5J inches in
length. (2) A spear-head (Fig. 152) 10J inches in length,
the blade leaf-shaped, the socket projecting 3 inches
beyond the base of the blade, and pierced transversely by

Fig. 151.— Part of Bronze Sword Fig. 152.— Spear-head of Bronze,
(5) inches in length). (10} inches in length).

a rivet-hole on either side. The socket, as usual, is continued
as a prominent midrib down the centre of the blade, and
cored almost to the point. (3) Two socketed axe-heads of
bronze (Figs. 153, 154). The first is 2| inches in length,
and 2 inches across the cutting face, which is semicircular,
and expands considerably as it thins towards the edge. The

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BllONZE AGE. 151

second is 4£ inches in length, and 2£ inches across the
cutting face, which expands to a semicircular form ; the

Fig. 153, 154. — Socketed Axes of Bronze (2f and 4J inches in length).

socket part is long and narrow, with a squarish opening
above. Each of the axes has a depressed moulding or
collar underneath the rim of the socket, and is furnished

Fig. 155.— Socketed Gouge of Bronze (actual size).

with a small loop on one side. (4) A socketed gouge
(Fig. 155), 2f inches in length. Bronze gouges are of rare
occurrence in Scotland. The only other specimen known is

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

one which was dredged up from the bed of the river Tay
before 1863, and is now also in the Museum. It is precisely

Fig. 156.— Circular Hollow Ring of Bronze and Section of Ring
(2| inches diameter).

of the same form and character as those here described from
Torrari and Killin. (5) A circular hollow ring (Fig. 156),

Pig. 157. — Penannular Ring of Bronze, with expanded ends (actual size).

similar in form to the button-like rings found with the
bronze swords in Edinburgh, and at Tarves, and with spear-

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 153

heads at Inschock, near Nairn. In this case there are no
loops in the concavity of the ring. It measures 2f inches
diameter. (6) A penannular ring or bracelet of bronze
(Fig. 157), 2f inches diameter, with slightly expanded ends.
(7) Nine plain annular rings of bronze, three of which are
2^ inches diameter; four are 1| inches diameter; and two
are 1| inch diameter.

At Inschock, near Nairn, some time before 1782, a hoard
of bronze objects was found, consisting of two spear-heads,
each 9 inches in length, two socketed
axe-heads 3£ and 2| inches long, and
a circular hollow ring of bronze,
3 inches diameter, similar to that
found in the Killin hoard.

In removing a cairn at Highfield,
near Dingwall, in 1781, four socketed
axe-heads and two spear-heads of
bronze were found laid on a flat stone
and carefully covered by other stones.
The larger of the two spear-heads
(Fig. 158) is 7£ inches in length, the
blade leaf-shaped, with segmental per-
forations ; the other is 4| inches in
length, with imperforate blade. Of the
axes, one is 4^ inches in length, with
an oval socket, and loop at the side,
and has a band of three raised parallel
lines round the collar under the rim
of the socket ; another of the same
size has a single raised line round the collar ; the other two
are smaller and unornamented. The cairn in which they
were found was probably sepulchral, but there is no
suggestion that the hoard was a burial deposit.

At Dalduff, near Crosshill, on the estate of Sir Charles

Fig. 158. — Spear-head
of Bronze found in
a Cairn at High-
field (7^ inches in
length).

154 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

D. Ferguson of Kilkerran, Ayrshire, in 1846, a number of
socketed axe-heads and pieces of broken bronze swords were
found. There is no detailed record of the composition of
the hoard,1 which was exhibited at a meeting of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland in June 1846, but "specimens "
of the articles found were then presented to the Museum,
and these consist of three socketed axe-heads (Fig. 159),

Fig. 159.— Three Socketed Axe-heads found at Dalduff, Kilkerran, Ayrshire.

measuring respectively 2f inches in length by If inch
across the cutting face, 3} inches by 2 inches, and 3J inches
by 2J inches ; two fragments of a short sword-blade with a
median ridge, like that in the Killin hoard, and a caldron
ring. As the workmen spoke of the objects having been
found in a "pot," they had probably been deposited in a
large caldron of thin beaten bronze similar to that which
appears in the Duddingston hoard by its ring.2

1 Dr. Macdonald has given an account of the circumstances of the
finding of this hoard in the Ayr and Wigtownshire Collections, vol. iv.
p. 50.

2 See the figures and descriptions of similar caldrons at p. 206, infra.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BKONZE AGE. 155

In the island of Shuna in Argyllshire, in 1875, three
bronze swords were found in digging a drain in peaty soil.
They were all sticking vertically in the peat, with the points
downwards, as if they had been purposely placed in that
position, and not casually lost.1

At Corsbie Moss, in the parish of Legertwood, Berwick-
shire, a sword and scabbard-tip and a leaf-shaped spear-head
of bronze were found in the peat within a foot or two of the
surface.

At Jacksbank, in the parish of Glenbervie, in 1880, two
bronze swords were found together in digging a drain at a
depth of 3 feet from the surface. One of these (Fig. 160)
was recovered entire, the other was broken in its removal
from the soil. The entire specimen measures 25f inches in
length, and weighs 20£ ounces.

At Kingarth, in Bute, three broad heavy blades, round
pointed, and with slightly curved edges, each furnished
with three rivets at the base of the blade for attachment to
the shaft, were found in 1862. The circumstances of their
discovery are not known, but the weapons themselves are in
the National Museum. They vary from 10 to 13 inches in
length, and are 3 inches in breadth at the base, with a
slightly rounded midrib running from base to point. The
position of the rivets, and the size and weight of the blades,
indicate that they must have been fixed axe-wise on a short
stout shaft, and not used as spear-heads or dagger-blades.

At Lugtonridge, in the parish of Beith, Ayrshire, in
1779, four or five bronze shields were discovered by some
labourers cutting peats. Only one of these (Fig. 161) is
preserved, and it owes its preservation to its having been

1 At Thurston, in the parish of Whittinghame, Northumberland, in
1847, a number of bronze weapons, consisting of two swords and three
spear-heads, were found " sticking in the moss with the points down-
wards, in a circle, about two feet below the surface." — Proc. Soc. Ant'f/.
Loud., Second Series, vol. v. p. 249.

156

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1791.
It is of thin beaten bronze, 2GJ inches
diameter, with a central boss 4| inches
diameter. The surface of the shield is
ornamented with concentric circles of
small studs in repousst, with concentric
ribs or ridges also hammered up from the
back between the circular rows of studs.
The handle is of bronze, fixed across the
inner side of the boss, the grip rounded
by turning the edges inwards. The handle,
and a portion of the rim of the shield,
the latter drawn to the actual size, are
shown separate in Fig. 162.

At Yetholm, in Roxburghshire, in 1837,
two shields of the same character were
found in digging a drain in a marshy
piece of ground. One of these (Fig. 163)
measures 23 £ inches in diameter, and has
a central boss 4 inches diameter, with
a projection of 1J inch, the handle riveted
across the central concavity of the boss.
The other shield is 24 inches in diameter.
Both are precisely similar in their decora-
tion. As in the Ayrshire examples, it
consists of concentric circles of small studs
and intervening circles of convex ridges,
both studs and ridges having been
hammered up from the back. In 1870
a third shield of the same character was
ploughed up in the same piece of marshy
ground. It is 22 J inches in diameter, with
a central boss 3i inches in diameter.
It is to be noticed that while in all these hoards weapons

Fig. 160.— Bronze
Sword found
at Jacksbank
(25| inches in
length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 157

Fig. 161.— Bronze Shield found at Lugtonridge, near Beith, Ayrshire.
Front View and Section (26f inches in diameter). .

158

SCOTLAND IN PAOAN TIMKS.

Fig. 182. — Handle and part of Outer Hide and Rim of Shield found at Lugtonridge.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 159

Fig. 163.— (1) Bronze Shield found at Yetholm, 23i inches diameter ; (2) View of
inside of Boss and Handle ; (3) Part of Rim (full size).

1 60 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

of .war are present, there are some which contain a mixture
of tools and weapons. Occasionally also there have occurred
hoards which contain no warlike weapons, but consist only
of tools, or tools and ornaments.

On the farm of Kehill, in the parish of Premnay,
Aberdeenshire, a hoard of nine axe-heads and several
penannular rings or armlets of bronze were discovered
some time before 1853. One of the axe-heads and two of
the armlets are in the Museum ; the others are not now
known to exist, and are undescribed. The axe-head which
has been preserved is socketed, with a loop at the side, like
those found in the Killin hoard. The armlets are also like
the armlet found in the Killin hoard, but one of them
presents the peculiarity of being tapered to the extremities,
as shown in Fig. 164.

Fig. 164. — Bronze Armlet found with nine Hat axe heads at Rehill,
Premnay, Aberdeenshire (2$ inches diameter).

At Bell's Mills, on the Water of Leith, in 1865, a small
hoard of three socketed axe-heads (Fig. 165) was found.
One of them is peculiar in form, having a long neck and
flattened sides, and being unfurnished with a loop. The
others are of the more common form, short-necked, and pro-
vided with a loop at one side of the upper part of the
socket

In digging a drain at the Castle Hill of Forfar (which

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 161

lies within the old margin of the Loch of Forfar), about

Fig. 165. — Bronze socketed Axes found near Bell's Mills, Edinburgh
(3J and 5 inches in length).

1855, a hoard of four socketed axe-heads and one spear-
head was found. Three of the socketed axes are shown in

Fig. 166. — Three of the four socketed Axes of Bronze found at Forfar
(3.J, 4|, and 3 inches in length).

Fig. 166. One of these is an elongated, spud-like imple-
11

162

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

ment, like that found at Bell's Mills, but provided with a
side-loop, and having a circular socket ornamented by an
encompassing band of four parallel incised lines round the
neck, which immediately under the loop passes from a circu-
lar to a twelve-sided form. It measures 4f inches in length,
by If inch in breadth at the cutting edge. Other two of the
axe-heads, which are 3 and 3£ inches in length, have wide
oval sockets and a semicircular cutting edge which extends
beyond the sides in recurved peaks, while the fourth,
which measures 3 inches in length,
A has a squarish socket and flattened

J^ sides. The spear-head (Fig. 167),

!•• which is 6£ inches in length, with

/Ji Hi a leaf-shaped blade, is ornamented with

fjj B» two bands of three parallel lines en-

circling the socket.

At Poolewe, in Ross-shire, in 1877,
XbJv a larger hoard was found by a labourer

digging peats. They lay at a depth of
six feet under the surface, and all in
one spot. The hoard consisted of
^^P three socketed axes entire, the largest

measuring 4J inches in length and the
smallest 2J inches in length, and
two of the same form, broken ; a hollow
ring of bronze, 2 inches diameter,
pierced through both sides; a caldron ring, 3£ inches
diameter; and a penannular ring (Fig. 168) with expanding
and trumpet-shaped ends. This form of penannular rin<j
is rare in bronze, and this is the only specimen known to
have occurred in Scotland.1 It measures 2j inches across

1 In Ireland, rings of this form occasionally occur in gold, ornamented
with the peculiar straight- line patterns of the Bronze Age. The Poolewe
hoard is described by Mr. Jolly in Proc. Soe. Antiq. Scot., voL xiv. p. 45.

Fig. 167.— Bronze Spear-
head found at For-
far (6J inches in
length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 163

the opening, the solid part of the ring being about f inch
thick, and the trumpet-shaped ends expanding to about
2 inches in diameter.

Fig. 168. — Penannular Ring of Bronze with expanded ends,
found at Poolewe.

On the farm of Balcarry, in the parish of Old Luce,
Wigtownshire, three bronze axe-heads were found together,
in 1875.1 They differ in form from these socketed examples
in being unsocketed, but having recesses on either side of
the central portion of the butt, which is thinned for inser-
tion in a split shaft-end, and the edges turned over to
retain the split ends of the shaft more firmly. This form of
axe-head is often termed a " palstave." The largest of the
Balcarry specimens (Fig. 169) measures 7-J inches in length
and 2£ inches across the cutting face, while the smallest
(Fig. 170) is 5^ inches in length and 2 inches across the
cutting face.

At Sluie, in the parish of Edinkillie, in Morayshire, some
time before 1861, two flat axe-heads of bronze were found.
They are neither socketed nor provided with flanges, but are
simply flat solid castings, axe-like in shape, and thinning to
both ends, one of which is broader than the other, and
sharpened to a somewhat semicircular cutting edge.

1 Notice of bronze implements found in Wigtownshire, by Rev. G.
Wilson, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. xiv. p. 132.

164

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

The larger of the two measures 6 inches in length, and
inches across the cutting face; the smaller (Fig. 171)

Fig. 169.— Bronze Axe, Balcarry. Front ami side views.
(7£ inches in length.)

is 5£ inches in length, and 3 inches across the cutting
face. The surfaces of both these axe-heads present a pecu-
liar coating of metallic tin, which is probably due, as Dr.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 165

Stevenson Macadam lias suggested, to the decomposition
of the bronze.1 A large heavy triangular blade of bronze,

Fig. 170. — Bronze Axe, Balcarry. Front and side views.
(5^ inches in length.)

1 1 inches in length, by 3| inches in greatest breadth, with
four rivet-holes arranged round the margin of its semicircular
base, was sent to the Museum along with the axe-heads, but
the evidence of its having been found with them is defective.

1 It has been also suggested that these axe-heads,. and some others
which present this peculiar coating of the surface, may have been
purposely tinned "to protect them from the influence of. the weather, and
keep the surface clean and free from oxidation." The analysis of the

1G6

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

At Colleonard, near Banff, in 1859, seven axe-heads of the
same form were found together. The largest is 6 inches in

Fig. 171. —Flat Axe-head of Bronze found at Sluie, Morayshire
(5J inches in length).

length and 3 inches across the face. Two of them have
hammer-marked ridges on both of the flat sides, following
the curved outlines of the sides about £ inch apart,

coating on the Sluie specimens, by Dr. Stevenson Macadam, exhibits a
very large proportion of carbonate and hydrate of copper : —

Tin 24-36 3278

Copper, 15-49 18-14

Carbonate and Hydrate of Copper, 60*15 49*08

100-00 100-00

and it seems more probable, as Dr. Macadam remarks, that the high
percentage of tin may be due to the gradual rusting away of the copper
of the bronze, which would leave an excess of tin on the surface. See a
"Notice of Bronze Axe-heads which have apparently been tinned," by
Dr. J. A. Smith, in Proc. Soc. Aniiq. Scot., vol. ix. p. 428 ; and also
Evans's Ancient Bronze Implements of Great Britain (London, 1881), p. 56.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 167

and three are marked all over their flat sides with in-
dentations from the pin end of the hammer.

On the Hill of Fortrie of Balnoon, in the parish of Inver-
keithny, Banffshire, at some time before 1853, a hoard of
seven flat axe-heads of bronze were found. Only one of
these is now known to exist, and it owes its preservation to
the fact of its having been presented to the National Museum.
It is of the same form as the specimen previously figured
from Sluie, and almost exactly of the same size, and presents
a similar coating of tin on the surface.

At Tonderghie, in the parish of Whithorn, Wigtownshire,
a hoard of six flat axe-heads of bronze was found some time
before 1795. None of them are now known to exist.1

Recently, at a place called " The Maidens," near Culzean
Castle, Ayrshire, in excavating for a shipbuilding yard, a
hoard of four flat axes and a penannular ring or armlet was
found, in a talus of loam and gravel under a whinstone rock,
about 100 yards distant from the shore, and 25 feet above
the present high-water mark. The armlet, which was broken,
measured 2J inches in diameter, with a thickness of about
£ inch. The axes were of different sizes, the largest
measuring 5£ inches in length, and 4£ inches across the
cutting face, and the smallest (Fig. 172) 3f inches in
length, by 1| inch across the cutting face. It was remarked
that, while they all bore evidence of considerable usage, the
largest and the smallest were not so much the worse of wear
as the intermediate sizes.2

Comparing the different varieties of bronze objects found
in the burial deposits with those that occur in the hoards

1 An account of their discovery, with a drawing of one, which shows
the characteristic form of the flat axe-head of bronze, is given in the Old
Statistical Account of the pariah of Whithorn.

2 This hoard has been fully described by Dr. Munro in Proc. Soc.
Antiq. Scot., vol. xvii. p. 433, and also in the Collections of the Ayr
and Wigtownshire Archaeological Association.

168

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

that are not associated with burials, it is seen at once that
the forms which occur in the one case are not the same as

those which occur in the
other. The objects asso-
ciated with burials are thin
flat triangular blades with
rivets, thin oval or bifid
blades with tangs, small
pins, and large closed rings
of bronze, associated with
such non-metallic objects as
l>eads and necklaces of jet
or cannel coal, flint knives
and arrow-heads, wrist-
guards and whetstones of
polished stone, and sepul-
chral pottery of four
different forms. The hoards,
on the other hand, present
no admixtureof non-metallic
objects, and they consist
mostly of bronze articles
of larger size than those
that are associated with
burials. The forms found
in the hoards are axe-heads
of three varieties, — flat,

flanged, and socketed ; gouges, spear-heads, broad heavy hal-
berd or dagger blades, swords, shields, harness-rings, arm-rings
of penannular form, and long pins with disc-like or shield-
like heads. Unless in one or two doubtful instances, there
is nothing on record which conclusively connects any one of
these last-mentioned forms with burial in Scotland. It is
impossible in the present state of our knowledge to assign a

Fig. 172.— The smallest of the four
flat Axes of Bronze found at
Culzean, Ayrshire (3f inches
in length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 169

reason for this. But the fact which is thus disclosed by the
collection and comparison of the phenomena of the burials
and of the hoards, though it may be contrary to our ex-
pectation, is not contrary to the experience of archaeologists
in the neighbouring areas.1

The most probable suggestion, by way of explanation of
the absence from the burials of the forms of bronze imple-
ments that are commonly found in the hoards, is based upon
the fact that these implements are all of types that evidently
belong to the most advanced period of the bronze industry,
such as the leaf-shaped swords, the broad heavy halberd
blades, the socketed axes, and the socketed spears. It is
only the plain flat axe, and the plain flat knife or dagger-
blade, and small tanged blade, that are found with burials ;
and these do not occur in the hoards, which, as a rule, yield
only swords and socketed implements and weapons. In
other words, the character of the one set of implements is
suggestive of the incipient stage, while the character of the
other set is suggestive of the advanced or fully-developed
stage of the Bronze Age industry. It follows from this that
the burials represent the earlier, and the hoards the later,
period of the Age of Bronze. So far as regards the burials

1 " Socketed axes of bronze have rarely, if ever, been found with in-
terments in barrows in Britain." "There is also this remarkable
circumstance attaching to the bronze swords, viz., that there is no well-
authenticated instance of their occurrence with any interments in
barrows." "Not only are spear-heads (of bronze) almost, if not quite,
absent from our barrows, but the skill involved in producing implements
so thin and so truly cored could only have been acquired after long
practice in casting/' — Evans's Ancient Bronze Weapons, etc., of Britain,
pp. 134, 273, 342. In the same manner Canon Greenwell remarks that
he has been unable to find a single authentic instance of the occurrence of
a bronze sword with a burial in Britain ; that he has only met with three
doubtful instances of socketed celts in connection with interments, and
that he has been unable to obtain a single case in which a socketed spear-
head has been found in true association with a burial. — British Barrows,
pp. 44, 45.

170 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

of this later period represented by the hoards we are at
present left entirely without evidence.1

Having thus described a considerable number of the
deposits of the Bronze Age that are known to have occurred
in Scotland, whether associated with burials, or simply
deposited for the purpose of concealment in the soil, I now
proceed to the classification of the several varieties of these
objects as they are presented in the aggregate collection of
Bronze Age remains. .

The aggregate of objects which has thus been presented
to us includes a number of varieties of arms, implements, and
personal ornaments ; and each of these varieties exhibits a

1 After an exhaustive review of the phenomena of the burials in the
harrows of the north-eastern area of England, Canon Greenwell says:—
" The conclusion, then, at which we seem to arrive, is that the barrows in
general belong to a period before bronze was in common use, and when
that metal was scarce, and only manufactured into article* of a com-
paratively small size, such as those usually found in them, viz., the plain
axe, knife-dagger, drill, and awl. Indeed, it is almost impossible to
believe that if the burial-mounds were constructed after the time when
swords, spear-heads, and socketed axes were abundant, none of them
should have been discovered in the barrows. If these weapons had not
Uei-n plentiful, we could understand how they might never have occurred
in connection with burials ; but from the numbers which have been found
in all parts of Britain, it is evident they were very widely diffused and
largely manufactured. This circumstance makes it difficult, indeed
almost impossible, to refer to the same period the erection of the barrows
and the fabrication and use of the weapons and implements in question.
It may be asked, if the ordinary barrows are none of them the burial-
places of the people who occupied the country during the highest develop-
ment of the Bronze Period, where do their burial-places exist? The
question certainly is one which it is not possible to answer ; but the
inability to offer any explanation is not sufficient to make us, in the face
of what appear to be greater difficulties, accept the view that the barrows
belong to that time. There are other periods during which the people
must have been buried in large numbers, and yet there is scarcely a trace
left of their sepulchral remains. For instance, the time which elapsed
between the introduction of iron and the full occupation of Britain by the
Romans was by no means a short one, and yet the burials which can be
attributed to that period are but few." — Britith Barrows, p. 49.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 171

distinctly typical form peculiar to the phase of culture we
are now investigating.

Dealing first with the arms or warlike weapons, we find
that they present the following varieties, viz., swords,
daggers, spears, and shields. It is to be noticed that no
arrow-heads of bronze appear among the articles found either
in the graves or in the hoards, and that when arrow-heads
are found in the burial deposits of the Bronze Age in
Britain, they are invariably of flint.1

The sword of the Bronze Period, the finest of their
weapons, is small and short, the blade leaf-shaped, and the
hilt unfurnished with a guard.2 It is therefore primarily a
thrusting instead of a cutting and parrying weapon. The
different specimens vary considerably in size. The second
largest in the Museum (Fig. 173) comes from the island of
South Uist, in the Hebrides, and measures 27 inches in

1 Four arrow-heads of flint were found with an unburnt burial in
a barrow at Woodyates, South Wilts, with which there was also a bronze
dagger and pin. An arrow-head of flint was found with a burnt interment
in a barrow at Wilsford, also in South Wilts, with which there was
a bronze dagger and a whetstone. Both these cases are recorded by Sir
Richard Colt Hoare in his work on the Barrows of South Wilts. In Borther
Low, Derbyshire, Mr. Bateman found with an unburnt burial a flint arrow-
head and a small bronze celt. Other instances of the association of arrow-
heads of flint with Bronze Age burials are given by Mr. John Evans in
his Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, pp. 354, 355. The same
association has been observed in France. In a tumulus at Plouye",
Finisterre, twenty-four barbed arrow-heads of flint were found with a
partially burnt interment, with which there were three bronze dagger-
blades and three flat axes of bronze. In the tumulus of Kergourognon,
C6tes-du-Nord, forty flint arrow-heads were found with six dagger-blades
of bronze. — Materiaux pour VHistoire de VHommc, vol. xviii. p. 448.

2 " Among ancient weapons of bronze, perhaps the most remarkable,
both for elegance of form and for the skill displayed in their casting, are
the leaf-shaped swords. The only other forms that can vie with them
in these respects are the spear-heads, of which many are gracefully pro-
portioned, while the coring of their sockets for the reception of the shafts
would do credit to the most skilful modern founder." — Evans's Ancient
Bronze Implements, etc., of Britain, p. 273.

172

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 173.--BronzeSwonl
found in South Uist
(27 inches in length).

Fig. 174.— Bronze Sword
found in the river Tay
(2§i inches in length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 173

length, while the largest known in Scotland (Fig. 174), which
was dredged up from the bottom of the Tay near Perth, does
not exceed 28J inches in length. Another, found in the Tay
near Newburgh, measures 26| inches, and one found in the
parish of Latheron in Caithness measures 25 inches in
length. The blade is doubly convex in the cross-section,
and the edge is formed in a peculiar manner by hammering
a strip of the metal of uniform width to an extreme tenuity
along each margin, and planing it flat with a whetstone.
This marginal strip, which is scarcely thicker than stout
writing-paper, forms an edge of uniform keenness, and
varying from about ^ to ^ inch wide. It extends from the
point along both sides of the blade to within 1 or l£ inch of
the extremity of the wings in the base of the blade, where it
is always cut off short, as shown in the specimens from
Wigtownshire and Keith House, Midlothian (Figs. 175, 176).
Both of these have lost part of their hilt-plates, and one has
the blade accidentally bent. In all these leaf-shaped swords,
the blade usually attains its greatest width at about one-
third of its length from the point, diminishing to its least
width at about another third of its length nearer the hilt,
and again increasing in width to its junction with the wings
of the hilt-plate. The hilt-plate itself is pierced with rivet-
holes in the wings, and usually also with rivet-holes, but
occasionally with slots, in the centre of the hilt-plate, for the
attachment of side-plates of bone, horn, or wood, to make up
the round of the grip. As a rule, the leaf-shaped sword has
had the grip of its hilt made up with convex side-plates of
perishable material thus fastened to the handle-plate by
rivets, and in some instances the grain of the decayed plates
is still visible on the oxidised surface of the metal. In rare
instances, as in the case of the sword found in Edinburgh
(as formerly noticed, see Fig. 141), the hilt is formed of
bronze, cast in the same mould with the blade. There is

174

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

however, a narrow rapier-shaped variety of blade, of rare
occurrence in Scotland, which has no handle-plate, the whole

Fig. 175.— Bronze Sword
•found in Wigtown-
shire.

Fig. 176. — Bronze Sword found
near Keith House (241
inches in length).

hilt being made of bone, horn, or wood, and attached to the
flattened base of the blade by rivets of larger size, somewhat

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 1 75

in the same manner as the broad flat dagger-blades were

handled. The Scottish examples of

these rapier-shaped blades are shorter

than the leaf-shaped swords, the one

here shown (Fig. 177), from Kirk-

oswald, Ayrshire, measuring 15 inches

in length.

Both these varieties of sword-blades
were cast in moulds, presumably of
stone. No sword-moulds have yet
been found in Scotland, but there are
in the Museum casts of the two
moieties of a stone mould for casting
these narrow sword-blades which were
found near Chudleigh, in Devonshire.
They are formed of a greenish mica-
ceous schist, and are 24£ inches in
length by 3 inches in greatest width.
With them a smaller pair of moulds
for a shorter blade of the same de-
scription were found. In " finishing "
the castings of these blades, the surface
was rubbed smooth with a stone rubber,
the edges drawn down with the hammer, and planished with
a whetstone.

The dagger-blades are thick and heavy in proportion to
their length, and they differ from the thin flat blades of
smaller size found in the graves,1 not only in being very
much larger, heavier, and less triangular and flattened in
shape, but in being usually formed with a stout midrib, some-
times a mere ridge, as in the case of the dagger from Gretna
(Fig. 178), at other times a central moulding, with lines on

1 See the descriptions of these thin knife-dagger blades in the first
Lecture, pp. 8, 12, 13.

Fig. 177.— Bronze Rapier
Sword, Kirkoswald.

176

SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIMES.

either side following the outlines of the blade, as in the case
of the finely-shaped and ornamented dagger from Pitkaithley,
Perthshire (Fig. 179). The ornament, which forms a band

Fig. 178. — Bronze Dagger, found
at Gretna, Dumfriesshire
(7 inches in length).

Fig. 179.— Bronze Dagger found
at Pitkaithley, Perthshire
(7 inches in length).

of triangles across the base of the central moulding of this
blade, is a variety which is often seen on the tall narrow
urns with bulging sides and thin everted lip. In both these
weapons, the rivets which attached the handle to the base of
the blade are still in the rivet-holes, and in the case of that
from Pitkaithley the mark of the lunated end of the handle
is distinctly visible as a darker shade on the base of the
blade. In these instances, and also in the case of a similar
blade found at Kilrie, near Kinghorn in Fife (Fig. 180), the

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 17'

attachment to the handle has been by two rivets. But in
the case of the verv much larger and heavier blade found at

Fig. 180. — Bronze Dagger,
found at Kilrie, File
(6£ inches in length) .

Fig. 181.— Bronze Dagger,
Whiteleys, Stranraer (12i
inches in length).

Whiteleys, near Stranraer (Fig. 181), the attachment has
been by four rivets, and the base of the blade is prolonged
backwards. The form of this blade differs from that of the
other three also in being slightly unsymmetrical with
reference to its median line, and the sides are differently
curved. This peculiarity, which is common to a pretty
numerous class of these broad heavy bronze blades, is more
clearly seen in such a blade as that shown in Fig. 182, also
12

178

SCOTLAND IX 1'AGAN TIMES.

found iii Galloway, in which the midrib or central moulding
curves considerably to one side, and the inner edge of the

blade is distinctly
scythe - shaped. As
the base of this blade
is broken, it is uncer-
tain whether the num-
ber of rivets may have
been three or four,
but it is obvious that
a blade of such size
and weight, with a
base of such exces-
sive width, could not
have been efficiently
hafted by the usual
mode of attachment
to a handle set in the
plane of the blade.
Bronze blades of this
character have been
found on the Con-
tinent, mounted axe-
wise in short cylindri-
cal handles of bronze.
Lindenschmidt has
figured several of
these from different
parts of Central Ger-
many, of which the

specimen here shown (Fig. 183), from Welbsleben in Saxony,
is a typical example. This mode of fixing these broad
heavy blades at right angles to the shaft is suggested
by the notice of one of the Scottish examples of this type,

Fig. 182.— Bronze Blade found in Galloway
(9 inches in length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 179

11 inches in length by 3| inches in breadth at the base
of the blade, which is pierced with five rivet-holes.

Fig. 183. — Bronze Age Halberd, from Welbsleben, near Mansfeld, Saxony
(27^ inches in length).

It is described as having been found in Portmoak Moss
in 1826, "with remains of the handle strengthened by
a cross-piece of bronze."1 These "halberd-blades," as
Mr. Evans has styled them, are frequently found of
such dimensions as are clearly incompatible with the
dagger-like method of hafting and use, the largest in the
National Museum being 1 4f inches in length by 4 inches in

Fig. 184. — Indian War Pick or Halberd (26 inches in length).

breadth at the butt. Steel blades of somewhat similar form,
though smaller in size, are still mounted axe-wise on iron
handles in India, as shown by a specimen from Delhi, now

1 MS. Communications to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. —
Letter by Lieut.-Col. George Miller, 1829.

180 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

in the Museum (Fig. 184). There is a variety of triangular
blade with thickened midrib, which, instead of being attached
to the handle by rivets passing through the base of the blade
itself, has a single rivet-hole in the end of a long narrow
tang. They are occasionally found in England, and more
rarely in Ireland, but I have only seen one example found
in Scotland (Fig. 185). It was turned up by a labourer
digging drains in Whitehaugh Moss, near Muirkirk, in Ayr-
shire. It measures 1 0 J inches in length, and 2 inches across
the base of the blade, from which a narrow tang projects
fully 1£ inch, pierced by a large rivet-hole close to the
end. The blade has a prominent midrib with parallel flutings
on either side.1 These blades appear to be more allied to
the dagger or halberd-blades already described, than to the
spear-heads, although, as Mr. Evans remarks, it is hard to
speak with any degree of confidence on this point.

The spear-head of the Bronze Age is usually a socketed
weapon, always unbarbed, and often leaf-shaped; but the
variation in the length and the curvature of the outlines of
the blade is extreme. The largest example in the Museum,
from Denhead, near Coupar- Angus (Fig. 186), is 19 inches in
length. It is exceedingly graceful in form, and the skill
displayed in its design and production would do credit to
the most accomplished moulder of the present day. These
larger blades are frequently pierced with segraental apertures
in the sides, which have been formed in the casting. These
openings not only economise the metal, and diminish the
weight of the weapon, but also add greatly to the grace and
elegance of its peculiar form. The typical leaf-shaped form,
with plain unpierced blade, is seen in the examples already
figured and described as occurring in the hoards found in

1 •• Ancient Bronze Implements of Ayrshire," by James Macdonald,
LL.D., in Archaological Collections of the Ayr and Wigtownshire Agsocia-
tion, vol. iv. p. 53.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 181

Fig. 185.— Tanged Blade of
Bronze from Whitehaugh,
Ayrshire (10£ inches in
length).

Fig. 186.— Bronze Spear-
head found near Dec-
head, Coupar- Angus
(19 inches in length).

182

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Skye, and at Achtertyre, Torran, and Killin.1 These are all
provided with rivet-holes in the sockets, set in the plane of
the blade, but at some distance below its base. Another
variety has the base of the blade pierced by loop-like openings,
as shown in the examples from Barhullion, Wigtownshire,
and Bellmven, East Lothian (Figs. 187, 188). These are both

I" . .. 1 *7. Mr i./.- Sj>ear lu-.-ul,
Barhullion (!'>} inches in
length).

Fig. 188.— Bronze Spear- head
found near Belhaven (1;»J
inches in length).

of large size, exceeding 15 inches in length, and their weight
would have been unsuitable for long-shafted weapons, had
not the metal been thin and the sockets cored almost to

1 See the figure* of these spear-heads on pp. 145, 147, 148, 150.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 183

the point of the weapon. In the specimens from Crawford,
Lanarkshire, and Linton, Roxburghshire (Figs. 189, 190),

Fig. 189.— Bronze Spear-head,
Crawford, Lanarkshire
(8| inches in length).

Fig. 190.— Bronze Spear-head,
Linton, Roxbiirghshire
(8 inches in length).

there is a tendency to the lozenge form in the blade, and the
sockets widen more suddenly below the blade instead of
tapering regularly from the point of the weapon to the butt.
In the example from Merton Hall, Wigtownshire (Fig. 191),
the bladejis ribbed on either side of the socket, and the loops
are prolonged below the base of the blade so as to become
partially free. In the specimen (Fig. 192) shown beside it
(the locality of which is unfortunately unknown), the blade
is slightly ribbed and more lozenge- shaped, and the loops
stand free on the socket half-way between the base of the
blade and the butt of the weapon. As there are usually no
rivet-holes in the sockets of these looped spear-heads, the in-
ference is that the loops were intended to secure the weapon

184 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

to its shaft by cords passing through them. Such loops won

Hg. 191.— Bronze Spear-head,
Merton Hall (9} inches in
length).

Fig. 192.— Bronze Spear-head,
locality unknown (9 inches
in length).

not however confined to the larger sizes of spear-heads. A

beautiful example with
tiuted blade (Fig. 193),
found in Lanarkshire, has
the loops low down on the
socket, which is also or-
namented with bands of
parallel lines. In the
specimen from Craigton,
Kinross (Fig. 194), we have
an example of the variety
with elongated socket and

Fig. 193.-Bronze Spear-head found in liam)W ^af-shaped blade.
Lanarkshire (5J inches in length). In that from Dean Water,

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 185

Forfarshire (Fig. 195), the blade is more triangular, the
socket shorter and wider, and compressed laterally, and
both blade and socket are enriched with elegantly effective
ornamentation.

Fig. 194. — Bronze Spear-
head, Craigton (6£
inches in length).

Fig. 195. — Bronze Spear-head found at
Dean Water, Forfarshire (5^ inches
in length).

These spear-heads, like the sword and dagger blades, were
cast in moulds of stone. Examples of such moulds have
been occasionally found in Scotland, and they are more
common in Ireland. Two stone moulds for looped spear-
heads were found together in reclaiming land near Campbel-

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

town, Argyllshire.1 The larger of the two moulds, of which
one moiety is here figured (Fig. 1 96), is 7 inches in length
by 1 J inch in breadth. The two halves
of this mould are exactly alike, and
are both formed of a dark-coloured
serpentine. There are no holes in the
sides by which they could be pinned
or dowelled together, and the proba-
bility is that they were bound together
with a thong lashed round the out-
side of the mould in casting. The
smaller mould (Fig. 197) is formed
of the same dark-coloured serpentine,
and measures only 4£ inches in length
by 2 inches in breadth at the wider
end. In this case the two halves or
moieties of the mould are not alike.
The whole thickness of the blade and
loops of the spear are cut out of the
one side of the mould, while the other
has merely the midrib cut on it, " and
the rest of that side of the mould is
gently bevelled towards the edges, the
result of which simple plan is that
when the two sides are laid together a
perfect mould is made — the two sides
of the casting being almost exactly alike, and less labour being
thus required in forming an outline exactly alike on both
sides of the stone matrix." Nothing in connection with the
technical processes of casting is more remarkable than the
manner in which these bronze spear-heads have their sockets

1 Two polished stoue axe-heads were found at the same time, ap-
parently in association with these moulds, for articles of bronze. — Proc.
Soc. Autii/. Ocot., voL vi. p. 48.

196.— Half of a
Stone Mould for cast-
ing Bronze Sj^ar-
lieads (7 inches in
length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 187

cored throughout the whole length of the weapon, often
almost to within an inch of the point. In the case of a fine

Fig. 197. — Both halves of a Stone Mould for casting Bronze.
Spear-heads (4|- inches in length).

stone mould found recently at Croglin, in Cumberland, Dr.
Taylor has shown, from the presence of a matrix for a long,
slender, and conical object on the back of the stone, that cores
of metal were used for the larger spear-heads in coring the
lengthened socket and midrib. "This custom," he says,
"was probably followed on account of the difficulty of
steadying a long slender core of loam, and possibly from a
knowledge that a metal core toughens or hardens, or (as the
foundry-men say) chills the casting."1

The shields, as we have seen,2 are circular, formed of a
thin plate of beaten bronze, ornamented with concentric ribs
and rows of small bosses or studs between. They are not
intended for use on the arm, like the heavier shields of later

1 See an interesting paper on this subject by Dr. M. W. Taylor in
Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. xvi. p. 103.

2 See the descriptions of those found at Beith and Yetholm, pp. 157,
159.

188 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

times, but were held in the left hand by a single handle
riveted across the hollow of the central boss.

There is but one specimen of a war-axe of bronze known
in Scotland (Fig. 1 98). It is peculiar in form and ornamenta-
tion, and though the material of which it is composed does
not differ in composition from the bronze of which these other

Fig. 198.— Bronze Battle-Axe found in n Morass at Bannorkburn in 1785.
(Size, 8j inches in length. Weight, 4 Ibs. avoir.)

weapons are made, it probably belongs to a somewhat later
time. I notice it here because it is a war-axe of bronze — a
weapon of which we have no other example, — the axes of the
Bronze Age proper possessing none of the characteristics
which differentiate this one so completely from the form of

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 189

the axe which is merely a tool. It is a solid casting of
bronze, 8f inches in length,
and 4 f inches in greatest
width across the crescentic
cutting face. The socket
for the shaft is If inch in
diameter, with an opening
of 1J inch diameter, and
pierced on opposite sides
by rivet-holes f- inch in
diameter. The bases of the
shaft-socket, and the conical
projections on the front and
sides, are encircled by a
rope-moulding — an orna-
ment which belongs rather
to the Iron Age than to
the Age of Bronze. The
weight of the weapon is
4 Ibs. It was found in a
peat-moss near Bannock-
burn, Stirlingshire, in 1785.
War-trumpets of bronze,
which are more common
in Ireland and Denmark,
are also represented in Scot-
land by a single specimen
(Fig. 199), found some time
before 1654 on the estate
of Coilsfield, in the parish
of Tarbolton, Ayrshire, and
since that time preserved
in the mansion-house there.
It measures 25 inches in length, and nearly 4 inches

Fig. 199.— Trumpet found at Coils-
field, Tarbolton, Ayrshire
(25 inches in length).

190

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

across the aperture at the wide end, and has two loops
for suspension on the inner side of its curvature. It
is cast in bronze, probably in two pieces, the junction being
concealed by the band near the middle of the instrument.
The bronze of which it is composed consists, according to
the analysis of Dr. Stevenson Macadam, of 90-26 parts of
copper to 9 '61 of tin.

Having thus described the several varieties of warlike
weapons which are presented in the aggregate collection of
Bronze Age remains, we now turn to those objects which
present the characteristics of useful tools and implements
for ordinary purposes of every-day work.

Of these the simplest, and apparently also the earliest
(if we judge from its sepulchral associations), is the flat and

imperf orate axe-head of bronze,
like that here shown (Fig. 200),
from Innermessan, parish of
Inch, "Wigtownshire. It is a
simple triangular wedge of
metal, 6| inches in length,
sharpened to a segmental cut-
ting edge at the broad end,
which measures 3 inches
across, and thinned at the
butt to an edge less sharp
for insertion into the knobbed
end of the handle, probably
in the same manner as the
natives of several parts of
Africa still haft thin flat triangular and imperforate axe-
heads of iron (Fig. 201). These flat axe-heads of bronze
vary greatly in size, although the larger sizes are com-
paratively of very much rarer occurrence than the more
handy sizes, which constitute the bulk of the general

Fig. 200. — Bronze Axe found at
Innermessan (6| inches in
length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BEONZE AGE. 191

collection. The largest known in Scotland (Fig. 202),
and probably also the largest ever found in Britain,

Fig. 201. — Iron Hatchet in its handle, from the Gaboon
(18 inches in length).

is in our National Museum. It measures 13f inches in
length, 9 inches across the cutting face, with a tang-like
prolongation of the butt-end of less than 2 inches in width.
It is thin in proportion to its size, being nowhere more than
| inch in thickness, and its weight is 5 Ibs. 7 ozs. This
extraordinary implement was found in digging a drain on
the farm of Lawhead, on the south side of the Pentland
Hills, in Midlothian. The largest implement of the same
form in the Dublin Collection measures 12| inches in length,
and 8 1 inches across the cutting face, its weight being 4 Ibs.
1 4 ozs. It is of course possible that such exceptionally large-
sized inplements as these may have been used as battle-axes,
and there are circumstances of association in some cases of
the occurrence of similar implements in burial deposits, which
seem to suggest their use as weapons. In a barrow at But-
terwick, in the East Eiding of Yorkshire, Canon Greenwell
found one of these flat axe-heads deposited with an unburnt
body. The axe-head had evidently been fixed into a solid
handle of wood, to the depth of 2 inches. The handle,
although completely decayed, could be plainly traced, and,

192

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKs.

to all appearance, the weapon had been carried suspended
from the waist. But the extreme simplicity of their form,

Fix. 202.— Bronze Axe, found at Lawhead, on the Pentland Hills,
K<linburghshire (13$ inches in length, and weighing 5 Ibs. 7 ozs.).

the general absence of decoration, and the obvious wear and
tear of the handier-sized implements, seem rather to imply
that their more general use was that of simple tools. These
handier-sized implements in general range from about
5 inches to 7 inches in length, with a breadth across the
cutting face of 3 to 3 i inches. Many of them have their
cutting edges unequally worn by use, or wasted away by
repeated sharpening. They seem to have been cast in open

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 193

moulds of stone, such as those shown in Fig. 203, the
mould being formed by a simple depression of the shape

Fig. 203.— Stone Moulds for Flat Bronze Axes (10J inches in length).

and thickness of the implement hollowed in the surface of
a water- worn boulder. Some appear to have received little
or no finishing by the hammer after their removal from the
mould ; others have their sides rounded, or hammered into
longitudinal facets. Occasionally they are hammer-marked
over the whole surface by way of ornament. More rarely
the ornamentation takes the form of a series of punch-marks,
obliquely opposed to each other, and arranged in parallel
rows, as in the large-sized example from the neighbourhood
of Nairn (Fig. 204). Sometimes the hammering of the sides
has been continued so as to produce flanges more or less
pronounced, thus forming a transition to the variety in
which the flanges have been formed in the mould. A
slightly flanged example (Fig. 205), from the Moss of Cree,
Wigtownshire, measures 5 inches in length by 2 inches in
greatest width across the cutting face, and § inch in greatest
thickness. Another of the slightly flanged specimens
(Fig. 206), found at Greenlees, Berwickshire, is ornamented
13

194

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

by concentric segmental bands punched in on the flat faces
of the implement, and the sides have been worked into a

Fig. 204. — Bronze Axe found near Nairn (10J inches in length).

series of oblique flutings. A similar ornamentation appears
on the sides of the specimen from Applegarth, Dumfries-

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 195

Fig. 205. — Bronze Axe with slight flanges found in the Moss of Cree
(5 inches in length).

Fig. 206. — Bronze Axe from Greenlees (7 inches in length).

196

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

shire (Fig. 207). It is however more deeply flanged, and
the upper part of the depression between the flanges pro-
vided with a transverse stop-ridge, the use of which was to
prevent the butt of the implement from being driven up
into the split end of the handle. These flanged implements

Fig. 207. — Bronze Axe from Apple-
garth (5) inches in length).

Fig. 203. — Bronze Axe found at Dams,
Balbirnie (4j inches in length).

when used as axes or adzes must necessarily have been
handled in the split end of a forked or kneed branch, the
divided ends being adjusted to fit the hollow between the
flanges, and firmly fastened with a binding of thongs.1
An axe-head of this variety, with flanges and a curved stop-
ridge, found at Dams, on the estate of Balbirnie, in Fife
(Fig. 208), is ornamented on the sides by a pattern of deeply
sunk lines, meeting each other obliquely in the central line.

1 Such baitings of these implements have been discovered in various
parts of the Continent. See Mr. Evans's chapter on " Methods of
Hafting," in Ancient Bronze Implements, etc., of Great Britain and Ireland.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 1 97

The flanges are often developed laterally until they present
an oval or lozenge-shaped form in the side view, as in the
examples from Largs and West Glenbuck, Ayrshire (Figs.
209, 210), and these lateral wings are occasionally turned

Fig. 209.— Flanged Axe from Largs,
Ayrshire (5£ inches in length).

Fig. 210.— Flanged Axe from West

Glenbuck, Muirkirk, Ayrshire

(6 inches in length).

over so as to enclose the split ends of the handle more
firmly. The stop-ridge also in such cases frequently assumes
a development in proportion to the depth of the wings,
and unites with their lower margins so as to form a kind of
eide pockets for the reception of the split ends of the
hafting.1 In these examples the middle portion of the butt
between the wings is often thinned, and the part below
the stop-ridge thickened, and occasionally a loop is added
on the side for the attachment of a thong. But the

1 See the Balcarry axes (Figs. 169, 170), pp. 164, 165.

198

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

most common variety of bronze axe-head in Scotland
is that which is cast with a tapering socket in the butt-
end for the reception of a crooked or L-shaped handle, and
having a loop on one side, presumably for fastening it to the

shaft by a cord. These socketed
axe-heads, of which a typical
example is shown in Fig. 211,
found at Strath, Skye, are usually
shorter than the flanged or
winged variety, and narrower in
the blade than the flat variety.
The socket is generally wedge-
shaped, with an opening of oval
or four-sided outline, the sides
being slightly curved. There is
usually a slight moulding or
collar round the upper part of
the socket above the loop, which
is placed on one side. The

sides expand with a greater or less curvature to meet the
curve of the cutting edge. The commonest size is from 3 to
4 inches in length, with a breadth across the cutting face of
l£ to 2i inches. Occasionally they are ornamented with
raised lines on the upper part of their flattest sides, and
sometimes with lines terminating in single or concentric
circles with central dots, as in the example from Knockand-
maize, Wigtownshire (Fig. 212). These axe-heads were cast
in stone moulds of two moieties, do welled together, and
cored for the socket. The core in some instances has not
been completely extracted from the socket, and is thus seen
to have been formed of clay. The two halves of a stone
mould for casting socketed axe-heads of bronze, found at
Rosskeen, in Ross-shire, are represented in Fig. 213. Speak-
ing of the different varieties of form assumed by this advanced

Fig. 211.— Bronze Socketed Axe

found at Strath, Skye

(3i inches in length).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 199

Fig. 212.— Socketed Axe-head, Knockandmaize (5£ inches in length).

Fig. 213. — Stone Mould for socketed Axe-heads of Bronze (6 inches in length).

200 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

type of bronze implement, Mr. Evans remarks that " those
found in England for the most part differ from those found
in Ireland, and some few types appear to be peculiar to
Scotland. Traces of continental influence are, as might have
been expected, most evident in the forms found in the
southern counties of England, and are hardly, if at all, per-
ceptible in those from Ireland and Scotland. Although
therefore the first socketed axe-heads in Britain were doubt-
less of foreign origin, there was no regular importation of
them for use over the whole country, but the fashion of
making them spread through local foundries, and different
varieties of pattern originated in various centres, and were
adopted over larger or smaller areas, as they happened to com-
mend themselves to the taste of the bronze-using public."1

The difference between the axes and the chisels of the
Bronze Age is more in the manner of hafting and of use than
in the form of the implement itself. The flat axe-head,
reduced in breadth, and prolonged to a tang-like extremity
at the butt-end, produces a chisel like that found at Low
Torrs, Glenluce, Wigtownshire (Fig. 214). The flanged axe-
head similarly attenuated becomes a chisel like that from
Burreldale Moss, Aberdeenshire (Fig. 215). A tanged form
of chisel with a cross-stop below the tang (Fig. 216) is also
in the Museum, but it is uncertain in what particular part of
Scotland it was found. The socketed axe-head occasionally
assumes a chisel-like form, like the example (Fig. 217) from
Kingoldrum, Forfarshire, and when more prolonged in the
neck, and deprived of its loop, it becomes a chisel like
that found at Bell's Mills, Midlothian.2 The gouges, on the
other hand, more closely resemble the modern implement.
Two of these have already been figured in their association

1 Ancient Bronze Implements, etc., of Great Britain and Ireland, by
John Evans, D.C.L., etc., p. 143.

• The central example in Fig. 165, p. 161.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BEONZE AGE. 201

Fig. 214.— Bronze Chisel,
Low Torrs, Glenluce
(4J inches in length).

Fig . 215 . — Flanged
Chisel from Burrel-
dale Moss (4 inches
in length) .

Fig. 216.— Tanged Chisel
(locality unknown),
(5 inches in length).

Fig. 217. — Bronze Socketed
Chisel from Kingoldrum
(4£ inches in length).

Fig. 218. —Bronze Gouge
from the Tay (3 inches
in length).

202 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

with the hoards of bronze implements of which they formed
part.1 A third example (Fig. 218), which was dredged up
from the bed of the river Tay, exhibits the normal character-
istics of the implement.

Awls, needles, and fish-hooks of bronze (Fig. 219) have
also occasionally been found in Scotland, but not as yet in

such associations as to de-
monstrate with certainty their
attribution to the Bronze Age.
I have seen one instance of
a socketed knife, like those
of Ireland, which was said
to have been found with
other objects of bronze in
Aberdeenshire. The sickle
is the only agricultural im-
Fig. 219. — Bronze Fish-hooks, plement of bronae which has

Glenluce, Wigtownshire (actual ,. . . _

si^ yet been discovered m Scot-

land. These sickles possess

a peculiar interest, inasmuch as their presence undoubtedly
implies the practice of agriculture, and the use of many
other implements of whose existence we have no direct
evidence. No quern, for instance, or other implement for
grinding grain, or whorl for spinning wool, has yet been
found in Scotland in associations which certainly assign it
to the Bronze Age, although the absence of the evidence
does not imply that no such implements were then in use.
Of the two sickles that are known in Scotland, one was
found in Aberdeenshire, and the other dredged up from the
Tay. The first-mentioned example (Fig. 220), which was
found at Edengerach, in the parish of Premnay, Aberdeen-
shire, consists of a curved tapering blade set at right angles

1 See the descriptions of the hoards of bronze implements found at Killin
and at Torran, near Ford, at the south end of Loch Awe, pp. 149, 151.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 203

to the end of an oval socket. The blade seems to have been
upwards of 4 inches in length, but is now imperfect. The
cutting edge is broken away, and the inferior end of the

Fig. 220.— Bronze Sickle found at Edengerach, Premiiay, Aberdeenshire
(Blade 4J inches long).

socket is also incomplete. The blade has been strengthened
by a projecting midrib, extending from the junction with

Fig. 221.— Bronze Sickle found in the Tay, near Enrol, Perthshire
(Blade 6J inches long along its upper margin).

the socket to the point. The second (Fig. 221), which is
preserved in the Museum of the Literary and Antiquarian

204 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Society of Perth, was dredged up from the river Tay, near
Enrol, in 1840. It is somewhat larger in the blade and
shorter in the socket than the Aberdeenshire specimen. The
blade measures 6 inches in length, by If inch in breadth,
terminating in a broadly rounded point. The socket is only
If inch in length, and * inch diameter. It is furnished
with small rivet-holes on opposite sides at the distance of
£ inch from the opening. Instead of being strengthened
by a midrib, as in the former instance, the blade is fluted in
four shallow grooves, following the marginal outlines.1 These
socketed sickles are peculiar to the British Islands and the
northern part of France. The sickle-blades usually found
in other parts of the Continent were attached to the handles
by rivets. From the small size of the blades, it seems
probable that the process of reaping differed from the modern
custom of cutting the straw close to the roots, and consisted
simply in cutting the tops off the straw close under the ears.
No moulds for casting these bronze sickles have yet been
found in Britain.

Bronze hammers have not been found in Scotland, and
but one example of the anvil of the Bronze Age (Fig. 222),
has yet been discovered. It was found somewhere near the
Kyle of Oykel, in Sutherlandshire, and is now in the Museum
at Dunrobin. Like the continental examples, it is of small
size as compared with the modern anvil, and adapted for being
used in two positions, according as one or other of the pointed
ends was fixed in the stock. This specimen is unfortunately
broken in both points, and now measures less than 4 inches
in extreme length, weighing 10 £ ounces. The oval top of
the anvil measures 2 inches by 1J inch. In the other

1 The Statistical Account of Sutherlandshire mentions the finding of
a bronze instrument in cutting peats at Led berg in 1790, which the Bishop
of Derry, to whom it was given, pronounced to be a Druidical pruning-
hook. The probability is that it was one of these bronze sickles.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 205

position the top of the anvil presents a series of swages of
different widths and depths, and a small circular hole pierces
the centre of the implement. The alloy of which it is com-
posed is nearly 70| parts of copper to 26| of tin.

Fig. 222. —Bronze Anvil found in Sutherland (4 inches in length).

Large caldrons formed of thin bronze plates riveted to-
gether have already been mentioned as having been found
in association with leaf-shaped swords and socketed axe-
heads of bronze.1 They have been also found in association
with implements of iron, and from this circumstance it is
to be inferred that they belong to the closing period of the
Bronze Age. One (Fig. 223) found imbedded in the mud at
the bottom of Carlingwark Loch, in the parish of Kelton,
Kirkcudbrightshire, contained a large quantity of armourer's
tools, such as hammers, chisels, saws, etc., of iron, and some
bronze ornaments. It measures 25 inches in its greatest
diameter, and 18 inches in depth, but has lost the rim and
handles. One found in the Moss of Kincardine, Stirling-
shire, in 1768 (Fig. 224), measures 25 inches in diameter and

1 In the Loch of Dnddingston, p. 143 ; at Kilkerran, Ayrshire, p. 154;
at Poolewe, Ross-shire, p. 162.

206

SCOTLAND IN I'AGAN TIMKS.

Fig. 223.— Bronze Caldron found in Carlingwark Loch (25 inches diameter).

Fig. 224.— Bronze Caldron found in the MOM of Kincardine, Stirlingshire
(25 inches diameter).

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 207

18 inches in depth. It is more globular in shape, and still
possesses the rim, though it wants the handles. A beauti-
fully-made caldron of this description (Fig. 225) was be-
queathed to the Museum by the late Mr. Archibald Leckie

Fig. 225. — Bronze Caldron from the West of Scotland (23 inches diameter).

of Paisley, but beyond the fact that it is believed to have
been found somewhere in the west of Scotland, nothing is
known of the place of its discovery. It measures 23 inches
in greatest diameter, and 13 inches in depth, the width
across the mouth being 15 inches, and the rings at the sides
4 1 inches diameter. It is made of a bottom piece and four
bands of thin bronze, each 3 inches in width, riveted together,
the rivets having conical heads. These caldrons, of globular
or spheroidal shape, with peculiarly constructed rims and
ring handles, have hitherto been found only in Scotland and
Ireland.

208 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

With these varieties of weapons and implements there
are occasionally associated certain peculiar forms of personal
ornaments. These have been already described in so far as
they have been found in association with burials. They con-
sist principally of necklaces of jet and amber, buttons of jet
or of bronze, pins of bronze with shield-like heads, and rings
and penannular armlets of solid bronze.1 The absence of
brooches, and the comparative infrequency of surface decora-
tion, brings this group of ornaments into striking contrast
with the group winch is characteristic of the Iron Age, as
described in detail in the previous series of Lectures. This
contrast is still more strikingly exemplified in the entire
absence of silver from the Bronze Age group and the abun-
dance and massiveness of the personal ornaments of gold.
They have been found not only associated with interments,2
but still more frequently by casually occurring discoveries
of hoards of gold ornaments or single articles of gold im-
bedded in the soil. The difficulty of obtaining information
with regard to the discovery and circumstances of association
of these gold objects is almost insuperable. Concealment
of the discovery is usually the first thought of the finders,
and though in disposing of the objects they may be obliged
to make known the fact of their discovery, the precise locality
and circumstances are seldom divulged.8

In 1856 a hoard of gold ornaments was found in a moss

1 See the descriptions of these ornaments at pp. 53-60.

3 The Gold Ornaments found in association with interments have been
described in the First Lecture, pp. 61-68.

8 It cannot be too widely known that though the Crown has the right
to all articles of "Treasure-Trove," or objects which originally have been
some one's personal property, but now have no owner, yet the person
finding such ownerless objects, on delivering them up to the Sheriff,
or to the Queen's Remembrancer in Exchequer, is entitled to receive in
compensation the intrinsic value of the objects. In all cases in which
the objects are thus delivered up by the finders on behalf of the Crown,
the value is promptly paid to them.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 209

somewhere in the West Highlands. The circumstances of
the discovery were never known, but the objects, or such of
them as had passed into the possession of a jeweller, were
acquired by Mr. P. Denny of Dumbarton, and by him
presented to the National Museum. The objects thus
recovered arid preserved consist of two penannular armlets

Fig. 226. — Gold Armlet found in the West Highlands
(actual size).

(Fig. 226) and a curiously formed penannular disc, the pre-
cise purpose of which is not obvious. The armlets are solid
cylindrical rods of gold, bent to a slightly elliptical form, and
terminating in slightly expanded extremities. The rods
of which they are formed are about fV inch in diameter ;
the armlets measure fully 2| inches in the longest diameter,
the heaviest weighing 19 dwts. 6 grs., and the lightest 17
dwts. 1 8 grs. The circular penannular disc found with them
(Fig. 227) is of the same form as that found with a bronze
sword at Gogar, in Midlothian, which has been already
described.1 It is a penannular ring, triangular in section

1 See the description of this hoard at p. 144.

210

-SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. '227. — Gold Ornament found in
the West Highlands (1| inch in
diameter).

made of thin gold plates fastened together by the edges, the
edge of one plate being rolled over the edge of the other

plate, which impinges upon
it, and the whole finished by
the hammer. It measures

I " inch in diameter by
| inch in depth at the
centre, the weight being

II dwts. This peculiarly
formed object is not known
in any other metal than
gold. It has occurred occa-
sionally in England, and
more frequently in Ireland,

but I know of no example on the continent of Europe.

A much more massive armlet, formed of a solid rod of
gold bent to a slightly elliptical form, and with very slight
expansions at the terminations, was found at Bonnyside, in
Stirlingshire, in 1852. The circumstances of the discovery
are unknown, but the armlet was recovered by the Ex-
chequer, and is now in the National Museum. The armlet,
which is nearly circular, measures 2f inches across the
interior diameter, the thickness of the cylindrical rod of
which it is composed being | inch. Its weight is 6 ozs.
10 dwts. 6 grs.

Four similar armlets of solid rods of gold, bent to an
elliptical form with slightly expanded extremities, were
found in digging a drain at Ormidale, near Brodick, in the
island of Arran, in 1864. The circumstances of the dis-
covery are not more fully known, but the armlets were
recovered by the Exchequer, and are now in the National
Museum. They vary in size from 2£ inches to 3 inches across
the opening in their longest diameter, and their weights are
respectively 484 grs., 394 grs., 355 grs., and 210 grs.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BKONZE AGE. 211

Five similar armlets, found in or about the year 1845,
in digging a drain in the neighbourhood of an eminence
called the Gallow Hill, lying between Tarry Mills and
Mary well village, in the parish of St. Vigeans, Forfarshire,
were sold to a pedlar as " old drawer-handles," and probably
cut down and melted.

Fig. 228. — Penannular Gold Armlet (one of three) found at Stonehill
Wood, Carmichael, Lanarkshire (actual size).

In 1834 three penannular armlets of gold were found to-
gether in Stonehill Wood, in the parish of Carmichael and
county of Lanark. The largest of the three (Fig. 228), which,
instead of being round, is somewhat quadrangular in section,
with slightly expanded ends, weighs 4 ozs. 212 grs. Round
it there were lapped two flat bands of thin gold, the largest
weighing 259 grs. and the smallest 133 grs., making with
the armlet a total of 5 ozs. 124 grs. The other two armlets

212 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

are smaller. They are somewhat quadrangular iu section
in the middle, but with round and considerably dilated
ends. The heaviest of the two weighed 447 grs. To
the other armlet there were attached two thin and flat
plates of gold, one considerably narrower than the other,
and so rolled round the body of the armlet that they could
not be separated from it without unrolling them, and also
a small ribbed penannular ring of a peculiar variety, which

Fig. 229.— Penannular Gold Armlet (one of three) found at Stonehill Wood,
Carinichael, Lanarkshire (actual size).

is not uncommon in Ireland, but has not been recorded as
occurring in Scotland except in this particular instance.
The weight of this armlet with these three additional
appendages (Fig. 229) amounted to 1 oz. 14 grs. ; the gross
weight of the whole hoard being 7 oz. 105 grs. These
objects were exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Anti-
quaries on 18th April 1864, through Mr. Franks,1 and are
now in the possession of the Earl of Home, on whose estate
of Douglas they were found.

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond. (Second Series), vol. ii. p. 401.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BEONZE AGE. 213

In 1780 a hoard of thirty-six gold penannular armlets
of this type was ploughed up on the farm of Coul, in the
island of Islay. The diameter of the solid cylindrical
rods of which they were composed was fully |- inch,
expanding to about £ inch at the extremities. It is stated
in the letter communicating the information to the Society
of Antiquaries (which is accompanied by a sketch show-
ing the form of the armlets), that they were all melted
except one, which was in the possession of a gentleman
in the island.

In 1784 there was presented to the Society a drawing of
an armlet of gold of this type, weighing fully 5 ounces,
which had been found by a labourer in Galloway.

A pair of gold armlets, also of this type, were found in
1871, in the neighbourhood of Kilmailie, Inverness-shire.
They passed into the possession of the proprietor of the
estate on which they were found, and are said to have been
subsequently lost.

Another pair of gold armlets of this type, found some-
where in Argyllshire, are preserved at Inveraray Castle.

A single armlet of this type, found somewhere in the
Western Isles, and broken, was recently sold to a jeweller
in Edinburgh, and by him transferred to the National
Museum.

One of two gold armlets, apparently of this type, which
had been ploughed up at Shieldhill, in the parish of Muckart,
in Perthshire, was sold as bullion in Perth for £8.1

At a place called the Galla Law, on Gullane Links,
Haddington shire, one or more penannular gold armlets were
discovered about the beginning of the present century.2

Two small penannular rings of this description, scarcely

1 Paper by Rev. Mr. Goldie read to the Stirling Field Club, 13th
Dec. 1881.

2 Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vol. x. p. 306.

214 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

larger than finger-rings, found in digging the foundations of
a house at Strond, Harris, were acquired for the Museum
from a jeweller, to whom they had been sold as bullion.

Occasionally these penannular rings or armlets of gold
have their expanded ends dilated into a hollow trumpet-
shaped form, similar to that of the bronze armlet found at
Poolewe, Ross-shire.1

Dr. Daniel Wilson has figured a very fine example of
this form,2 which was found by a labourer digging peats, in
the parish of Cromdale, Inverness-shire. It has the interior
rim of its trumpet-shaped ends beautifully decorated with
the triangular pattern so characteristic of many of the
Bronze Age urns — a triangular space filled with straight
lines drawn parallel to one of its sides. Dr. Wilson also
notices two other bracelets of gold, apparently of this type,
described by Sir John Clerk as having been found in drain-
ing a loch in Galloway, on the estate of the Earl of Stair,
at some time previous to 1732. Another of the same form,
found in Ayrshire, was in the possession of Mr. Thomas
Brown of Lanfine.3

Another variety of gold armlet or necklet is formed of a
flat band, tapering slightly from the middle to the ex-
tremities, and twisted like the thread of a screw, passing at
the extremities into slender cylindrical hook-like termina-
tions, with conical knobs, which interlock, and serve to fasten
the circlet when worn. These spirally twisted bands, as
well as the circlets of two or more strands of intertwisted
wires, are often described indiscriminately as tores, being so
named simply because they are twisted.

A hoard, consisting of four of these armlets or necklets,

1 See the figure on p. 163.
8 Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 460.

8 See also the armlet of this form found with burials at Sunderland
in Islay aa previously described, p. 64.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 215

was found, in the winter of 1848, on the top of a steep bank
which slopes down to the sea, among some loose earth which
was being dug to be carted away at a place called The
Temple, which is part of the village of Lower Largo, in Fife-

Fig. 230. — Gold Armlet found at Lower Largo, 11 inches in length (actual size).

shire. Two of these are shown of the actual size in Figs.
230. 231. They were not found in association with a burial
deposit, although it is stated that at some time long previous
to their discovery several burials had been met with near
the same spot.1 They are all made of fillets of thin gold

1 An old woman who lived close to the spot all her days, says that in
her youth several burials were found there, and one man was supposed

216 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

worked into a spiral like the thread of a screw. The fillet
tapers from the middle of its length, where it is about
| inch in width, to the extremity, where it is little more
than -,V inch wide, when it passes into the cylindrical

Fig. 231.— Gold Armlet found at Lower Largo, 11 J inches in length (actual size).

hooked extremity, terminating in a conical knob. They
are most elegantly made, the fillet brought to a uniform
thinness, and worked to a regular spiral in the cleverest

to have found a treasure, having suddenly become rich enough to build a
house. — A rchttoloyical Journal, voL vi. p. 53.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 217

manner. They are all very nearly of the same size and
weight.

No. 1 is 11 inches in length, when straightened out,
and weighs 7 dwts. 17 grs. (Fig. 230).

No. 2 is 11 £ inches long, and weighs 7 dwts. 15 grs. (Fig.
231).

No. 3 is lOf inches long, and weighs 8 dwts. 2 grs.

No. 4 is a fragment 3 inches in length, weighing 54 grs.

These beautiful examples of the goldsmith's work of the
closing period of the Bronze Age in Scotland have recently
been presented to the National Museum by Mr. Eobert
Dundas of Arniston.

That this form of twisted fillet belongs to the closing
period, and not to the early period, of the Bronze Age, is
indicated by the association of three examples of this type
of armlet with the hollow gold object decorated with the
Celtic patterns peculiar to the Iron Age system of ornamen-
tation in this country, which were found together on the
Shaw Hill, near Cairnsmuir, in the parish of Kirkurd,
Peeblesshire, and have been described in the previous course
of Lectures.1 These three armlets (though described as of
this form) must have been greatly more massive than the
Largo examples, as they are represented to have each
weighed about 8| ozs., the bullion value of the whole hoard
being about £110.

A very large hoard of gold armlets of this type, amounting
by one account to " more than three dozen," and, by another
account, to " about forty," were turned up by the plough on
the farm of The Law, in the parish of Urquhart, Elginshire,
in the spring of 1857. They were all, so far as could be
ascertained, similar in style and pattern, with the exception
that some had simple hooks at the extremities, serving to
clasp the armlet on the arm, whilst in a few instances the
1 Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age, p. 138.

218 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

hooks terminated in little knobs. The spot where they were
turned up by the plough is in a field about forty yards dis-
tant from the base of a large tumulus locally called The
Law,1 from which the farm derives its name. They were
not found in association with a burial, and, judging from
their number, they seem rather to exhibit the characteristics
of a hoard than of a burial deposit ; but it is stated that a
small cairn had formerly covered the place where they were
found, and that it had been removed when the land was
brought into cultivation, a few years previous to the dis-
covery of the hoard. There are four of these armlets now
in the National Museum. They differ from the Largo
examples only in the spirally twisted fillet being of nearly
equal width throughout, and the recurved hooks being less
distinctly knobbed at the ends. They vary in size : two of
them form circlets of about 4£ inches diameter, that might
encircle the neck, the other two form circlets of about
3 f inches diameter.

The following are their measurements and weights : —

No. 1 is (when straightened) 14f inches in length, and
weighs 8 dwts. 2 grs.

No. 2 is 14 inches in length, and weighs 8 dwts. 18 grs.

No. 3 is 1 2 inches in length, and weighs 8 dwts. 1 6 grs.

No. 4 is 11£ inches in length, and weighs 9 dwts. 2 grs.

An armlet of gold of this form, found at Belhelvie, Aber-
deenshire (Fig. 232), was acquired for the Museum in 1857.
The fillet of which it is formed is slightly broader and
heavier than in the Urquhart examples, and more open in
the spiral twists, but it resembles them in being of almost

1 The Law is a conical mound, about 150 feet in diameter, and 15
feet in height. There is a local tradition that a golden cradle lies buried
in it. It has been recently excavated by Mr. Galloway Mackintosh,
and found to cover a cist with an unburnt burial, accompanied by an urn
of Type 1 of Group 2d, p. 70.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 219

uniform width throughout, though differing in the recurved
ends being simple flattened hooks without knobs at the
extremities. It measures (when extended) 12 inches in
length, and weighs 8 dwts. 14 grs.

Fig. 232. — Gold Armlet, found at Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire
(12 inches in length).

An armlet, or necklet of gold, almost precisely similar in
form and size to the Belhelvie example, found near the
borders of the parish of Coulter, in Lanarkshire, was in the
collection of the late Adam Sim of Coulter.

Another gold armlet of this character, found at the head
of Little Lochbroom, in Eoss-shire, and presented to the
National Museum, in 1860, by Mr. Hugh Mackenzie of
Ardross, resembles the Largo specimens in the breadth of
the fillet, the extremities, terminating in recurved hooks with
bluntly conical knobs. It forms a circlet of about 4 inches
diameter, measuring, when extended, 12^ inches in length.
Its weight is 8 dwts. 8 grs.

A more massive gold armlet, found on the Moor of
Eannoch (Fig. 233), forms a circlet of 3| inches in diameter.

L'L'O

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

The width of the fillet in the centre is almost £ inch, tapering
to about $ inch at the extremities, which terminate in simple
recurved hooks without knobs.

Fig. 233.— Gold Armlet found in the Moor of Rannoch (actual size).

Of the larger and much more massive variety of armlet,
formed of intertwisted cylindrical rods or wires of gold, there
is but one example known to have occurred in Scotland
(Fig. 234). It consists of three rods or wires twisted
together round a common centre, and uniting at the ends in
a single rod, which is recurved, and forms a long terminal
hook. It is coiled spirally so as to encircle the arm in four
complete coils, which, when extended, give a total length of
4£ feet. This magnificent armlet, which was found at Slate-
ford near Edinburgh, in 1846, during the construction of the

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 221

Caledonian Railway, was by far the finest example of gold-
smith's work from the Age of Bronze that had ever been
seen in this country, and the only one of its kind then or
now known to exist. Yet it was clipped to pieces and con-
signed to the melting-pot by a jeweller in Edinburgh. A
cast of it, however, is preserved in the Museum.

Fig. 234.— Gold Armlet found at Slateford, Midlothian, 4£ feet in
lengtli ($ actual size).

Another magnificent example of this type of gold orna-
ment, which is spoken of as a "collar" or "girdle," was
found in or near a circular entrenchment on the summit of
a hill in the parish of Penicuik, Midlothian, about the
beginning of the present century. It seems to have been
also melted down, but it has been figured by Dr. Wilson
from a drawing in possession of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland.1

1 Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 464.

•_'•_'•_' SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

No personal ornament of any period is more suggestive of
costly magnificence of attire than the golden diadems of the
Age of Bronze in Britain.1 Of these, we have three examples
fortunately preserved in the National Museum. Their form
is that of a broad lunette of beaten gold, terminating in
disc-shaped extremities. The central opening is large enough
to admit of the ornament being worn either on the head as
a diadem, or on the neck as a gorget.

Fig. 235. — Gold Diadem found at Coulter, Lanarkshire
(7 inches in diameter).

Two of these diadems of gold were found together on the
farm of Southside, near Coulter, in Lanarkshire, in 1860.
One of them (Fig. 235) was presented to the Museum by
the late Mr. Adam Sim of Coulter. It is 7 inches in its
greatest diameter, formed of a broad band of thin beaten

1 That they belong to the Bronze Age is indicated by their occurrence,
as at Padstow in Cornwall, associated with flat axe-heads of bronze.
— Archceoloyical Journal, voL xxii. p. 276.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 223

gold, 1| inch wide in the middle, tapering to less than
£ inch at the extremities, where it terminates in disc-like
expansions, the necks of which are slightly twisted. It is
ornamented with bands of engraved lines parallel to both
margins.

Fig. 236. — Gold Diadem found at Auchentaggart, Dumfriesshire
(8f inches in diameter).

A remarkably fine diadem of gold of this form (Fig. 236)
found at Auchentaggart, in the parish of Sanquhar, Dum-
friesshire, has also been deposited in the National Museum
by the late Duke of Buccleuch. When turned up by the
plough, it was folded together, and rolled up almost into a
ball. It is 8| inches in its greatest diameter, and formed,
like the Coulter specimen, of a broad band of thin beaten
gold, 2J inches wide in the middle, and tapering to the
extremities, which also terminate in disc-like expansions.

224 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

One of these has lost a small portion, and appears to have
been mended by pins or small rivets, the holes of which still
remain. It is more elaborately ornamented than the previous
example, but on the same principle of marginal bands of
parallel lines, with alternate spaces of shorter lines crossing
the direction of the parallel lines, and delicate wavy lines
occasionally introduced.

In considering the significance of these manifestations of
the prevalence of the use of gold in Scotland at a period
when iron and silver do not appear among the industrial
products of the people, and bronze was the only metal em-
ployed in the fabrication of cutting tools and weapons, it has
to be remembered that we are dealing with evidence which
is notoriously incomplete. We have only imperfect records
of the discoveries of a single century out of the many that
have intervened since operations of agriculture and reclama-
tion of land and excavations of every kind have been the
means of bringing to light the objects that lay buried in the
soil. Yet the evidence that is before us, incomplete and im-
perfect as it is, is undoubtedly evidence, not of an extreme
scarcity, but of an abundance of gold ornaments greatly in
excess of what we might have anticipated.1 To the questions
of how this supply of gold was obtained, and whence it was
derived, there is no direct answer obtainable by any method
known to me. But of this we may be certain, that from
whatever source the Bronze Age people of Scotland obtained
their supply of the precious metal, it could not have been

1 Much larger boards of gold ornaments, apparently also from the
Bronze Age, have occurred iu England, Ireland, and the north of France.
A hoard of gold objects, weighing over 11 Ibs. avoirdupois, was ploughed
up at Mountfield in Sussex, and sold by the ploughman as old brass for
5s. 6d. — Proc. Soc. Antlq. Lond. (Second Series), vol. ii. p. 247. Between
thirty and forty penannular armlets of solid gold, said to have been worth
over £6000 as bullion, though this must be a greatly exaggerated estimate,
were found near Newmarket in County Clare in 1855, and Mr. Graves states

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BRONZE AGE. 225

obtained without its relative equivalent in labour or produce.
Whether they procured it from its native sources within
their own territory, and by their own industry and skill, or
whether they imported it in exchange for other productions,
the significance of its possession with regard to their con-
ditions of life remains the same. In like manner, it does not
affect the significance of their possession of bronze that they
may not have procured the copper and tin of which it is
composed within their own territories. If they imported
these metals also, the fact that a traffic so complex and
costly was maintained and provided for, implies the existence
of conditions of culture and systems of social, commercial,
and even political organisation, which cannot be held to
indicate a low state of civilisation.

I now proceed to sum up the characteristics of this peculiar
phase of culture and civilisation as we find it manifesting
itself in Scotland. Its essential characteristic is that bronze
is the only metal employed in the useful arts. Its weapons
and its tools on this account differ wholly in form and
character from those that were used for similar purposes
when the material of which they were made was iron
hardened into steeL But though they are therefore, in their
general aspect, strange and unfamiliar to our experience, it
is not difficult to perceive that the specialty of form and
character so obviously exhibited by each separate variety
of tool or weapon is also obviously a form and character
which is specially suited to the requirements of its purpose,

that he saw a portion of the hoard which had been purchased in Dublin
for £500. — Kilkenny Journal, vol. iii. p. 181. The largest gold bracelet
of the penannular type in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy
weighs 16 ozs. 17 dwts., and the largest gold tore in the same collection
weighs 27 ozs. 7 dwts. — Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iii. pp. 131, 221. At
Quentin, in Brittany, in 1832, there was found within a circle of stones a
hoard of twelve penannular armlets of solid gold, the heaviest weighing
4 Ibs. 10 ozs. 16 dwts., and amounting in the aggregate to the value of
£1035 as bullion. — Archceologia, vol. xxvii. p. 14.

226 SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIMES.

in view of the qualities and capabilities of the material of
which it is made. And whether they be weapons or tools, they
have this characteristic in common, that they are always well
made, substantial, and purpose-like. In addition to these
serviceable qualities, they possess the high merit of being
well designed, graceful in outline, and finely proportioned,
exhibiting, even in the commonest articles, a play of fancy
in the subtle variations of their distinctive forms that is
specially remarkable. As the metal of which they are com-
posed is an alloy — a compound of copper and tin in certain
proportions, variable according to the purpose of the instru-
ment,1— it is evident that knowledge and skill were requisite
for the successful working of the material As the forms of
the manufactured articles were given to them in the moulds
in which they were cast, it is evident that the brain which
designed and the hand which modelled these forms must
have been specially conversant with the technicalities of
complicated processes, and with the experiences of dexterous
and skilful workmanship implied in such manufactures.
That these objects were manufactured within the country is
apparent from two circumstances: (1) that in many cases
they exhibit special varieties of form which are peculiar to
Scotland ; and (2) that the moulds themselves are found in
the soil in which the objects are found. The moulds which
have been found are cut in stone. They are skilfully made,
and can still be used to cast from. Some of them, such as
those for rings, knife-blades, and flat axe-heads, are open
moulds; while others, such as those for spear-heads and
looped and socketed axe-heads, are double, closed moulds,
made in two moieties, which are dowelled together in cast-

1 The analyses of the weapons and implements of bronze show that
the proportions of the two constituents of the alloy — copper and tin —
were by no means constant ; but, roughly speaking, about nine parts of
copper to one of tin appears to have been the proportion aimed at.

WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, ETC., OF THE BEONZE AGE. 227

ing, and are capable of being fitted with cores. The hammered
work of the period was equally skilful. The large globular
caldrons formed of plates of bronze beaten almost as thin as
sheets of paper, riveted together, and ornamented with studs,
are really beautiful works of industrial art ; and I venture to
say that nothing finer than the workmanship of these bronze
shields has ever been produced by the hammer. The people
who supplied themselves with implements and weapons in
this capable and cultured way, also used gold occasionally
in the mounting of their weapons, and most lavishly in
personal adornment. Although we know nothing what-
ever of their household arrangements, or the manners and
customs of their domestic life, seeing that not a trace of a
dwelling or site of a settlement of the Bronze Age has been
discovered in Scotland, yet we are not without evidence
of an indirect nature to indicate that they could not have
been wholly destitute of the comforts and conveniences of
life. And not the least striking of all the characteristics of
their culture is exemplified in the fact that we know them
chiefly, not from the circumstances in which they maintained
themselves in life, but from circumstances which are the
direct result of their attitude of mind towards their dead.
If life with them was a struggle for existence, we look in
vain for its memorials ; but there is no wide district of
country in which the memorials of their dead are not
prominent, picturesque, and familiar features. In this, no
less than in the varied phenomena of their burial customs,
the preparation of the funeral pile, the fabrication of the
finely ornamented urns, and the costly dedication of articles
of use or adornment, freely renounced by the survivors, and
set apart from the inheritance of the living as grave-goods
for the dead, we realise the intensity of their devotion to
filial memories and family ties, to hereditary honour and
ancestral tradition.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

But we attain to this realisation only by patient in-
vestigation, and after a long course of sustained and laborious
effort to gather and preserve the mutilated relics and
memorials of the piety and industry, the culture and
civilisation, of our Bronze Age ancestors. For in our iron-
shod progress we trample out the footmarks of those who
thus travelled before us. We demolish their monuments,
we plough their graves, we scatter their bones. We do this
as if it were a necessity of civilisation, and we do it with
the less compunction that we call them savages.

THE AGE OF STONE.

LECTURE IV.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

FROM the several lines of investigation pursued in the three
previous Lectures, we have now obtained a systematic
view of the typical phenomena of Bronze Age burial, and
of the typical characteristics of the Bronze Age culture. I
now proceed, in the three Lectures which follow, to deal
similarly with the remains and relics of the Age of Stone, —
in other words, to classify the residue of the Pagan burials,
and determine their associated forms of arms, implements,
and ornaments.

This residue of burials and their associated objects,
which our investigation has left unclassified because they
have not been found assignable to either of the Ages of Iron
or of Bronze, will be found to consist of types that we have
not previously met with. The sepulchral constructions of
the Iron Age (as we have seen) were Barrows and Cairns —
mere structureless heaps of earth and stones. In the
Cairns and Circles of the Bronze Age there is occasionally
some approximation to a structural character, but it is
only now, when we come to deal with the sepulchral remains
of the Age of Stone, that we shall meet with a type of
construction which is completely structural. We shall
also find that the manner of burial, by the deposition of
many successive interments (presumably of the same family)

230 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

in one chamber, is quite unlike the system of single and
separate interments in cairns or cemeteries which charac-
terised the Age of Bronze. The types of the urns associated
with the burials in these Stone Age sepulchres will be also
found to differ widely from those with which we have now
become familiar as the characteristic accompaniments of the
interments of the Age of Bronze. The difference in the
whole character of the grave-goods is further intensified by
the fact that among them we shall find no object of metal
— but arms, implements, and ornaments formed simply of
bone or stone.

In order that the significance of the typical character of
the Chambered Cairn of the Stone Age may be fully dis-
closed, it will be necessary to describe with considerable
minuteness of detail the several parts and features of the
sepulchral constructions with which this peculiar system
of aggregate burial and these deposits of non-metallic grave
goods are commonly associated. I shall therefore first
describe the Caithness group of Chambered Cairns, taking it
as the typical group, not only because it is the largest, but
because it happens to be also the group with whose special
features I am best acquainted ; and we shall then proceed to
the examination of other groups, to the southward or north-
ward, according as they seem to associate themselves with
the typical group by their several characteristics.

In 1865 and 1866 I excavated a series of sepulchral
cairns in Caithness of singular interest, inasmuch as they
disclosed features in connection with the construction of
Cairns that were previously unknown.

On the crest of a considerable eminence overlooking the
south end of the loch of Yarhouse, on the estate of Thrumster,
in Caithness, are two cairns of great magnitude within a
short distance of each other. They are not circular, but

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

231

elongated in form ; they lie across the crest of the hill from

east to west ; they diminish in breadth and height from east

to west ; and they have

at both ends curved

horn-like projections of

their structure, falling

gradually to the level of

the ground.

The larger of the
two cairns (of which
Fig. 237 shows the
ground-plan after it was
excavated) was 240 feet
in length. The breadth
of the base of the cairn
at the eastern end was
66 feet, and at the
western end 36 feet,
but the curved projec-
tions of the structure
which I have called
horns expanded so as
to make the line across
their tips at the eastern
end 92 feet, and at the
western end 53 feet.
The extreme height of
the cairn at the east
end did not exceed 12
feet, sloping gradually
to less than 5 feet at
the west end.

The removal of the loose stones from the upper part of
the east or high end of the cairn disclosed the existence of

Fig. 237. — Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn
at Yarhouse, Caithness (240 feet in length).

232

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

a chamber with a passage leading into it The exterior
opening of the passage was in the middle of the curvature

of the end of the cairn
between the projecting
horns. Two flat stones
set on end, about 2J feet
high, form the door
jambs on the outside of
the entrance. A well-
built passage, 2 feet
wide or thereby, runs
inwards for 10 feet, and
at its further end, where
it opens into the cham-
ber (as shown in Fig.
238), two stones, similar
to those at the outside
entrance, but consider-
ably higher, are set in
the wall of the chamber,
forming between their
edges a doorway 18 inches wide. Only one of the covering
stones was found on the passage, close to the entrance to
the chamber, and the height, which seemed to have increased
gradually from the exterior entrance inwards, was here about
4 feet.

The chamber to which the passage gives access is small,
— excessively small, as compared with the gigantic size of the
cairn itself. It measures scarcely 1 2 feet in length from front
to back, and about 6 feet from side to side. We found the
side walls still entire to a height of 7 feet. At this height
there were signs of convergence to form a rudely vaulted roof,
like the roofs of the bee-hive huts, the chambers in the brochs,
and other constructions of dry-built stones. The ground-

Fig. 238.— View of Tripartite Chamber
in Cairn at Yarhouse.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 233

plan of the chamber is roughly a quadrangular oblong, but
there is a sensible curvature both in the lines of the length
and of the height of the walls. They are neither laid
straight nor built straight. The construction of the chamber
shows another peculiarity. It is tripartite, being divided
into three sections by two pairs of divisional stones project-
ing from the side walls at certain distances opposite each
other. These divisional stones are merely rough iindressed
flags sunk on end into the floor, and let into the wall on
either side so as to stand partially across the chamber,
leaving a passage of about 2 feet wide between their
edges. Entering the chamber from the passage, you find
the first compartment, measuring from side wall to side
wall across the doorway, 4 feet 7 inches in width, the
width increasing until it becomes 6 feet from side wall to
side wall at the first pair of divisional stones. Their dis-
tance from the doorway is 3 feet 7 inches at the minimum,
as they are not set square to the side walls, which are
slightly curved. These two stones rise to the height of
7 and 7| feet above the floor respectively ; and as they
do not appear to have been ever higher, there must
have been a free space between them and the arching
of the roof. Passing between these stones by an aperture
about 20 inches wide into the second compartment of the
tripartite chamber, we find the width rather more than
6 feet, as the walls do not run exactly in line with those
on the exterior side of the divisional stones. This second or
middle compartment is thus a little more than 6 feet from
side wall to side wall, and 5 feet 4 inches from the one
pair of divisional stones to the next. The second compart-
ment, like the first, was included under the arched roof, of
which the spring is visible on the wall-head. But the third
compartment differed from the other two in being covered
by a flat roof formed of an enormous block of stone resting

234 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

on the second pair of divisional stones in front, and sup-
ported at the back by another great slab forming the back
wall of the compartment. The side walls were built like
those of the other compartments, but the whole height of
this inner cell was not more than about 3 feet at the
front, and 2£ feet at the back. Its floor space measured
4 feet 8 inches from side wall to side wall, and 2 feet
4 inches from front to back. It not only had the roof
remaining on it intact, but its doorway was closed by a
slab which fitted the aperture. When this was removed,
the interior was quite full of small stones from roof to
floor.

Having cleared the three compartments of the chamber,
and ascertained its construction, it seemed probable, that, as
it did not occupy more than a twentieth part of the length
of the cairn, other chambers would be found within its mass.
The west end was tried, but no sign of passage or chamber
appeared. The centre was tried, and trials were made at
various places between the centre and the ends without
result. It seemed altogether unlikely that such an enormous
construction should be furnished with only a single small
chamber ; but the negative results of the trials along the
whole length of the mass were conclusively supported and
confirmed by the subsequent operations directed to the
elucidation of the structural plan of the cairn and the
definite configuration of its outlines.

I tell the story of this elucidation precisely as it
happened, because it conveys an important lesson, which I
then learned for the first time, — learning it unconsciously,
and from the mere force of circumstances. I was then but a
novice in the art of cairn exploration ; and, like all novices,
I thought only of the readiest method of cracking the nut
to get at the kernel. It did not occur to me that there was
anything to be done with the mere husk of the cairn beyond

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS: 235

the discovery of the most direct method of access to its
contents. Up to that time it had been the general opinion
that the object of opening a cairn was simply to obtain its
contents. In accordance with the usual opinion and practice,
I cracked the nut, and found that it contained no kernel —
or, in other words, that it held no relics that could be ex-
hibited in a glass case.

On the floor of the chamber (when cleared of the super-
incumbent ruin of its roof and the upper part of its walls,
which had fallen into it) there lay a few unburnt bones of
animals. They were but few, and as they belonged appar-
ently to such small animals as might have frequented the
chamber for shelter, no further notice was taken of them.
The floor itself was formed of a dark clay, firmly compacted,
in which a rough paving of small flattish stones appeared to
have been partially though irregularly laid. The surface
of the clay was hard, and had the appearance of a well-
trodden floor. But reflection showed that this appearance
did not necessarily imply anything that might not have
been produced by the pressure of many tons of loose
material for a great length of time on an originally soft
floor of ashes and earth, occasionally moistened by rains.
The substance of the floor was a compacted mass of about
5 inches thick of earthy clay, plentifully intermixed with
ashes and charcoal of wood, and calcined bones, in a con-
dition of extreme comminution. This layer of clay and
ashes was easily detached from the natural subsoil below,
from which it separated in large cake-like masses. Each of
these masses was carried out into the open to be crumbled
and searched. Although the amount of bone-ash which
entered into its composition was very large, no single frag-
ment of bone was discovered exceeding an inch in length.
The few fragments that afforded definite indications, such as
portions of teeth, jawbones, and phalanges, were unmistak-

236 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

ably human in character. About a dozen chips of flint —
mere chips, and mostly small — and two fragments of pottery,
of a well-made, hard-baked, thin, and black paste, were all
the manufactured relics that were obtained.

Had the chamber been full of relics, the probability is
that I should have been satisfied with the recovery of these,
and the external structure of the cairn might have remained
uninvestigated. It was, in fact, the non-success of the search
for relics that suggested the direction of the investigation to
other results. The best defined of the two projecting horns
in front of the chamber was selected for examination. It
was entirely covered with turf and heather, and was about
4 feet high at its junction with the cairn. When excavated
along its entire length, it was found to be structureless in
the upper part only, the lower part showing a well-built
double wall, measuring 54 feet along the curvature from the
entrance of the chamber to the tip of the horn. At the tip
of the horn the stones used in the construction of this
double walling consisted of large flags and smaller stones in
alternate courses ; but along the side both walls were con-
tinuously built with small flattish stones. Both the walls
thus forming the outline of the inner curve of the horn were
faced only to the exterior, the second or inner wall appear-
ing close behind the first, and thus showing that the first
or outer wall was built up against it. When the sloping
mass of dilapidation was cleared away, the whole structure
was found to be entire in the lower part, the double wall
appearing like two steps of a stair all round the outline of
the horns. Tracing it backwards along the body of the cairn,
we uncovered its lower courses throughout their entire
length on both sides and round the curvature of the posterior
horns. They were constructed in the same manner throughout,
and the smaller end of the cairn differed in no respect from
the larger end, except in the absence of a passage and chamber.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 237

It thus became evident that this great cairn was a cairn
only in external appearance, and for the same reason that
a broch is usually a cairn, because its external aspect shows
merely the dilapidated ruin of a regular construction.
Although by the dilapidation of ages this cairn had assumed
the appearance of an oblong mass of loose stones, it was now
made clear that it had originally been built upon a definite
ground-plan, with a double wall defining its external outlines.
Of its external elevation we had portions remaining to the
height of 4 feet, although along the greater part of its outline,
the foundation courses only were left in position. But
besides this, it was also a regular construction, in the archi-
tectural sense of a structure, with an internal, as well as an
external elevation, for it contained an interior chamber
covered by a roof, partitioned into compartments, and pro-
vided with access by a lintelled passage from an external
doorway. It was not built with mortar or cement of any
kind ; its stones were unsquared, and bore no mark of any
tool ; its roof was partly flat and partly arched or vaulted by
the overlapping of the stones ; but, in all these respects, its
constructional features are not different from those of the dry-
built structures of the early Christian period, or of the Iron
Age of the Pagan time. But its singularity of form, and the
absolute individuality of its architectural conception, preclude
the possibility of assigning to it any relationship with them.
In point of fact, we have hitherto met with no form of
structure to which it is comparable.

The second cairn (Fig. 239), closely resembling the first
in character, stood on the crest of the same hill about 300
yards distant. Its extreme length is 190 feet, its greatest
breadth across the body of the cairn 45 feet, and its least
breadth at the smaller end 25 feet. Like the previous
example, it lies east and west, with the higher and wider
end of the cairn facing the east. The horn-like projections

238

SCOTLAND IN I'AKAN TIMKS.

in this example are shorter in proportion to the size of the
cairn, and more dilapidated, but enough remained of their

foundations to determine
accurately their shape
and dimensions. The
middle part of the cairn
had been greatly de-
stroyed by the removal
of the stones for building
purposes, but fortunately
the chamber and its con-
tents had not been inter-
fered with. The horns
at the wide end of the
cairn project about 30
feet, and are from 10 to
12 feet wide at the tips.
The same double walling,
faced only to the exterior,
extends round the original
outline of the cairn, and
defines its external form.
This double wall retained
5 feet of its height, in the
centre of the semicircular
sweep of the horns, at the
wide end of the cairn.
Here, as in the former
case, was the entrance to
the chamber. The passage
leading into it was 9 feet
long and 2 feet wide.
None of its roofing stones remained. The chamber was
tripartite, like that of the other cairn ; but it was slightly

Fig. 239.— Ground-plan of Chambered
Cairn at Yarhouse, Caithness (190 feet
in length).

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 239

larger, and it differed also in the form of the third com-
partment, which ended with a semicircle, and seemed to
have been included under the same arched roof with
the other two compartments. The divisional stones were
lower than those in the first cairn — the first pair being
only 5 1 feet in height, and the second pair 4 feet.
As the side walls of the chamber showed no signs of
convergence at the height of 5 feet, it seems impossible
that the divisional stones could have reached to the roof ;
and the inference is that the arch of the roof, resting only
on the side and end walls, must have spanned the whole
chamber, which would thus be tripartite only in its lower
portion. The first compartment, next the entrance, was
nearly square — measuring 5| feet from side wall to side
wall, and 4 feet 10 inches from the end of the passage to
the opening between the first divisional stones. The second
compartment was 7 feet 9 inches wide at the inner side of
the dividing stones, widening somewhat in the centre, and
contracting to 7 feet at the next pair of dividing stones.
The semicircular compartment at the back was 6 feet

8 inches in width at the front, and 5 feet in length from
front to back.

On the floor of the first compartment, to the left of the
entrance, a cist was placed, formed of slabs set on edge,
between the front wall and the divisional stone on that side
of the chamber, and covered in by two smaller slabs. It
was about 4 feet 4 inches in length, 20 inches wide, and

9 inches deep to the level of the floor. At this level, in the
dark earthy clay which filled the interior of the cist, there
was a whitish layer of softened bones in a condition of
extreme decay. In the east end of the cist were the frag-
ments of an urn, ornamented with parallel bands of impres-
sions of a twisted cord, showing the fibrous texture of the
strands. A necklace of small beads of lignite (Fig. 240) had

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

been deposited with the urn, and by washing the clay
removed from the cist, seventy of these were recovered.

The floor of the chamber

Q Q Q I • • itself, in all the compart-

ments, consisted of a layer of

Fig. 240.— Beads of Lignite compacted clay and ashes,

fully 6 inches in thickness,

intermixed with charcoal, and burnt bones, human and
animal. On the surface of this compacted floor there was
a loose layer, in which were greatly decayed fragments
of human bones, unburnt ; and in the cornel's of the com-
partments of the chamber were numbers of human teeth, of
which the osseous parts had perished, and the enamel of the
crowns only remained. Not a vestige of pottery, not a
single chip of flint, no manufactured object whatever,
occurred either in or on the floor — except the urn and the
beads enclosed within the cist.

Another cairn (Fig. 241) of the same character as those
at Yarhouse lies along the ridge of a small elevation in the
Moor of Canister, about three miles distant. Its extreme
length is 195 feet ; its breadth at the wider end, which looks
to the east, is 64 feet ; and at the narrow or western end
32 feet. In this example the horns are short but well
defined. In the space between them the double retaining
wall of the east end of the cairn presents a double curvature,
and was found standing to a height of 7 feet. Judging from
the analogy of the Yarhouse cairns, we expected to find the
passage opening between the projecting horns of the high
end of the cairn, but it was only after clearing away the
loose slope of fallen stones along the retaining wall of the
south side, that we discovered a passage leading from that
side into a small chamber directly under the apex of the
cairn. The passage was little more than about 2 feet high
at the entrance, and about the same in width, and con-

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

241

Fig. 241. — View and Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Camster, Caithness
(195 feet in length).

242 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

sequently could only be crawled into when fully cleared of
the stones and rubbish. It went nearly straight inwards for
about 17 feet, when it turned a little to the right, and
entered the chamber by an irregularly arched doorway.
The chamber was a small cell, the lower part of its side
walls composed of five slabs set on edge. These slabs were
irregular in shape and unequal in height, and the space
above them was levelled up and built upon with smaller
stones. The walls thus carried up were gradually brought
to an approximately circular form, and converged to a bee-
hive roof, covered in by a single stone of about 9 inches
square, at a height of about 6 feet from the floor. Had the
floor been circular, it would have been no more than 6 feet
in diameter. Instead of being formed of earth, as was the
case in the chambers of the Yarhouse cairns, the floor of this
chamber was formed of two large flag-stones, which roughly
fitted the interior space. When these were raised, it was
found that they lay upon the undisturbed subsoil. The
chamber thus contained no trace of any sepulchral deposit
either on or underneath the floor. Its principal interest was
that its constructive features were complete from floor to roof.
Fifty feet along the south side of the cairn we found the
opening of another passage, leading into a chamber of the
same tripartite form which was characteristic of the cairns
at Yarhouse. This passage was remarkable for its unusual
height and width, and also because it was rudely arched
across with overlapping stones for a few feet at the outer end,
while further in it was lintelled over with stones laid flat
from side to side. The lintelled portion was 4 feet high and
2£ feet wide, and where the roof of the passage merged into
that of the first compartment of the chamber, the lintels rose
successively, like the under side of a stair, from front to back
of the roof of the compartment. The whole length of the
passage was 10 £ feet. The tripartite chamber was similar

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 243

in plan and construction to those already described. The
walls remained entire to a height of 5 to 6 feet, and at that
height showed signs of convergence all round. The first pair
of divisional stones were 6 to 7 feet in height, the second
pair only 5 feet. It seemed as if the second and third com-
partments had been covered by one bee-hive roof, the first
being lintelled over as has been already described. The
floor of the chamber was a compacted layer of clay and
ashes, of varying thickness, intermixed with quantities of
burnt bones, human and animal. In the loose layer which
lay on the surface of this compacted mass there were found
a few fragments of skulls and other bones of the human
skeleton, unburnt, and mingled with splintered bones of the
horse, ox, deer, and swine. No fragments of pottery, and no
chips or implements of flint were found.

If the investigation of these examples of a very peculiar
type of sepulchral structure has been singularly barren of
results, as regards the associated relics which are the usual
accompaniments of cairn burial, we have at least ascertained
a series of facts regarding the structure of the cairns them-
selves, which are full of significance. That significance
becomes at once apparent when it is remembered that all
the sepulchres of the Bronze and Iron Ages with which we
have previously become familiar are absolutely structure-
less,— mere heaps of earth and stones piled over the cists or
graves which contain the deposits. Here, on the contrary,
the deposits are placed in chambers, constructed within the
mass of the cairn, which thus presents an essential feature,
distinguishing it from the structureless cairns of the Ages of
Bronze and Iron. The cairns with which we are now dealing
are chambered cairns, furnished with a passage for access
to the interior apartments, and by this essential feature
of their character they are separated from all varieties of
sepulchral constructions that are unchambered. In addition

244 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

to this, they also present the equally characteristic and
typical feature of being constructed on a definite ground-
plan, with a distinct individuality of form and outline,
which is defined externally by a double retaining wall.

Keeping these typical characteristics in view, let us now
proceed to examine another variety of chambered cairn, of
which I also excavated two examples in the same locality.

The first of these (Fig. 242) is situated on a small
eminence at Ormiegill, near Ulbster. It presents the same
characteristics of external form and internal structure, but
is as remarkable for its shortness, in proportion to its width,
as the previous examples were for their length. Its extreme
length is only 66 feet, and its extreme width nearly the
same. The horns expand in front till they are 50 feet
apart, those at the other end being 37 feet apart. The horns
in front are 8 feet broad at the tips, which are convex, and
those behind are 9 feet broad. A double wall of cdn-
struction, faced only to the outside, defines the whole
exterior outline of the structure ; and a circular wall, 80 feet
in circumference, surrounds the chamber. The passage
opens from the middle of the concavity between the horns
in the wider end of the cairn. It is 10 feet long, and 2 feet
wide, and seems to have been lintelled over. The chamber
is tripartite on the ground-plan. The first compartment
measures on the floor only 3 feet by 4 feet 10 inches, and
there are signs of convergence of the side walls at a height
of about 3£ feet above the floor. The second compartment
measures about 8 feet by 6£ feet, and the third about 5 feet
by 2 feet 3 inches on the floor, but the outward inclination
of the great slab, forming the back wall of the chamber, made
the cross measurement greater when taken higher up. On
the floor of the chamber a quantity of unburnt bones of
human beings and animals lay, mingled with the debris of
the upper part of the cairn, with which the chamber was

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

245

filled. The floor itself consisted of a layer of ashes
fully a foot thick. A pavement of slabs had been laid
in some parts of the chamber, and this layer of ashes
extended both over and under the pavement. The natural
subsoil beneath was in some places deeply pitted, the

Fig. 242. — Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Ormiegill, Caithness
(66 feet in length).

pits being filled with the same compacted layer of ashes
and bones. The quantity of burnt bones in the ash-bed
was very great. We recognised about thirty fragments
of skulls, which, from their varying size and thickness, we
judged to have been those of different individuals. The

246

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

bones were very irregularly burned, some being merely

charred in part of their
length, and others com-
pletely calcined. Besides
the human bones, there were
a very large number of bones
of animals, among which
were those of the horse, the
ox, the deer, the dog, the
swine, and some leg and
wing bones of fowls. Frag-
ments of pottery, many of
them indicating that they
had been portions of round-
bottomed vessels, made of a
thin dark-coloured paste.hard
and smooth, and without ornament, and a great quantity of
chips and flakes of flint, were intermixed with the ash-bed

Fig. 243.— Polished Hammer of
Grey Granite from Chambered
Cairn, Ormiegill (4 inches in
length).

Figs. 244, 245, 246.— Portion of Flint Knife, Arrow-head, and oval Knife of
Flint, from Chambered Cairn, Onuiegill (actual size).

throughout. In the central compartment of the chamber,
imbedded among the compacted ashes of the floor, there were
found a finely polished hammer of grey granite (Fig. 243),

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

247

4 inches in length, pierced with a hole for the handle ; the
point end of a finely finished flint knife with a ground edge
(Fig. 244) ; an arrow-head of flint, triangular in form, but
lop-sided, and hollowed at the base (Fig. 245) ; an oval and

\ \eS&y ,..•••"

Fig. 247.— Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Garrywhin, Caithness
(80 feet in length).

pointed knife of flint formed from a flake trimmed to an edge
all round (Fig. 246) ; several flakes, serrated on one side,
which seemed to have been used as saws, and a number
of well-made scrapers of flint of the usual form. In the

248 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

first compartment of the chamber another arrow-head of
the same triangular form was found.

The second cairn (Fig. 247), locally known as the Cairn
of Get, is situated in a hollow among the hills at
Garry whin, near Bruan. Its extreme length is about 80
feet, and its greatest breadth about 60 feet The horns
project about 20 feet in front and about 15 feet behind.
The passage is 1 1 feet in length, about 2 J feet high at the
entrance, and 2£ feet wide, but it widens about 6 inches
further in. The double wall, defining the outlines of the
external form, and the circular wall surrounding the chamber,
again present themselves in this example ; but the chamber
itself exhibits a singular variation. The divisional stones,
which would have formed the partitions between the second
and third compartments, are in their places ; but, instead of
being set across the floor as divisional stones, their faces are
set flush with the walls, so that the second and third com-
partments are thrown into one, and the chamber is thus
subdivided into two compartments only, instead of being
tripartite. The first compartment measures about 6 feet by
4J, and the second 11 feet by 10. Its walls begin to con-
verge about 5 feet above the floor. The roof had collapsed,
and the chamber was filled with its ruins. The floor, as in
the previous instance, was a compacted mass of ashes and
bones, fully 1 8 inches thick. On the surface of the floor, in
the first compartment, were four unburnt skeletons, the
skulls lying close to the wall on the right of the entrance.
In the compacted mass of ashes which formed the floor, the
quantity of human and animal bones was very great. They
were mostly more or less burnt and fragmentary. The
animals represented were the horse, ox, dog, deer, swine, and
probably the sheep or goat. Flint chips and flakes were
plentifully intermixed throughout the mass, and fragments
of pottery of blackish colour, some of which retained indi-

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 249

cations of their having been portions of round-bottomed
vessels, thin, hard-baked, well made, and mostly unorna-
mented, were equally abundant. The only other articles
found were three finely
made leaf-shaped arrow-
heads of flint, one of which
is shown in Fig. 248.

Looking to the structural
characteristics of these two

examples, We find that they Fig. 248.— Leaf-shaped Arrow-head

do not differ from those that of Flint from Chambered Cairn

at Garrywlrin (actual size).

have been previously de-
scribed, except in their length. They not only belong to the
same type, but to the same variety of the type, — a variety
which is distinguished by the peculiar projections from both
ends of the structure, which I have called horns.

I now proceed to describe other examples, which differ
from these in having no such projections, although they still
possess the typical characteristics of a definite external form
and an internal chamber. At Camster, not far from the
long cairn previously noticed, a very large circular cairn
(Fig. 249) crowns a small eminence in the moor. It
measures 220 feet in circumference at the base, and about
18 feet in height in the centre. We obtained access to the
chamber from the top of the cairn. It had been roofed by
two slabs, one of which had given way, and the chamber had
become filled with the loose stones falling into it from above.
Having cleared these out, we found the direction of the
passage leading to the E.S.E. side of the cairn, and un-
covered its exterior opening. It was packed full of stones
from end to end, and as it is over 20 feet in length, and
closely roofed with flags of enormous size, this packing of
stones appeared to have been introduced purposely. At the
exterior opening the passage is only about 2| feet high by

-•"><> SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

2 feet wide, increasing in height and width inwards, until, at
the entrance to the first compartment of the chamber, it is

Fig. 249. —Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Camster, Caithness
(75 feet in diameter).

about 3| feet high and 2£ feet wide. It is buttressed at
intervals on both sides throughout its length by stones
standing edge-ways in its walls, which help to support the
massive roofing slabs, as well as to strengthen the dry-built
walling.

The chamber is tripartite on the ground-plan, and barrel-
shaped in the vertical section (as shown in Fig. 250), the first
compartment forming a sort of flat-roofed porch or ante-
chamber to the barrel-shaped part or principal chamber, which
is formed by carrying the walls over the top of the first pair
of divisional stones, and uniting the second and third com-
partments under one roof. The walls are 10 feet high,
bulging slightly outwards in the middle, and contracting
upwards to the roof from a height of 7 feet above the floor.
One of the roofing stones, as I have said, remained in its
place. The roof of the first compartment was also formed

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

251

of two large slabs, which had their ends supported on the
wall heads of the side walls of the compartment ; and their
sides were carried on transverse lintels laid across the inner
sides of the doorways. The doorway entering the compart-
ment from the passage was only 17 inches wide, and 3| feet
high. The front wall on either side of it is formed of
a single stone. The side walls are compactly built, and
measure, the one 3 feet 7 inches, the other 3 feet 10 inches
in length, and 3| feet high.

Fig. 250. — Section along Passage and through the Chamber of Chambered Cairn
at Camster, Caithness (75 feet in diameter).

The entrance from the first compartment into the larger
chamber beyond it is but 15 inches wide, and 3 feet high.
The divisional stones flanking it are 7 feet high, and, as they
form part of the walling of the oval chamber, they are set
at an angle to the side walls of the front compartment, so as
to fall in with the oval form of the chamber beyond. The
third compartment is formed by two divisional stones, about
4J feet distant from the second pair, and 3 feet from the
back of the chamber. They are only 4 feet high, leaving a
free space of 6 feet between them and the roof.

A number of bones, both human and animal, were
found on the surface of the floor of the chamber. Among
these bones, on the surface of the floor, was an iron single-
edged knife or dagger-blade, about 4 inches in length. In
the middle of the passage, or about 4 yards outwards from
the chamber, and nearly the same distance from the exterior

252 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

entrance, two human skulls, with the bones of the upper
extremities, were found among the stones with which the
passage was filled. The bones of the lower extremities, if in
contact with the damp soil of the bottom of the passage,
would have decayed more quickly, and this we judged to be
the reason why they were not found. These, and the bones
found with the iron knife on the floor of the chamber, we
considered to be not necessarily connected with the original
use of the structure. From their position they might have
been introduced at any time, and must have been placed
where they were found subsequent to the formation of the
compacted mass of ashes and burnt bones of which the floor
itself was composed.

This layer of burnt bones and ashes, which formed the
floor of the chamber, was from 9 inches to a foot in thickness.
Imbedded in it were a c6nsiderable number of fragments
of human bones, and bones of animals, mostly imperfectly
burnt, but in some cases completely calcined. We judged
that at least three, if not four, different skeletons were
indicated by the broken fragments, but probably the number
was greater than this. Many fragments of pottery were
found. They were chiefly portions of round-bottomed vessels,
of a singularly thin, black, hard-baked paste. Some had
thickened, and others had everted, lips ; and one was pierced
with holes immediately under the rim. They were mostly
smooth and plain, but one of larger size was ornamented by
impressions of the finger-tip and nail obliquely thrust into
the soft clay. The only other manufactured object found
was a small but finely formed flint knife (Fig. 251), of that
peculiar variety of this implement which has a straight and
well-ground cutting edge.1

1 For other examples of this variety of flint knife, see the fragment
found in the cairn at Ormiegill, figured at page i.'4G, and also those de-
scribed in Lecture VI., p. 369.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 253

The external form of this cairn was not ascertained
beyond the disclosing of the bounding wall for a few feet on

Fig. 251. — Flint Knife with ground edge from Chambered Cairn, Canister
(actual size).

either side of the doorway. This showed that a bounding
or defining wall existed, and, from other indications, we
concluded that it was probably continued all round the
circumference of the cairn. But the distance and the
expense forbade the further determination of this interesting
question.

On the summits of the hills of Yarhouse there were four
cairns, the chambers of which had been explored about ten
years previously by Mr. A. Henry Ehind, the founder of this
Lectureship. The results of his investigations of the floors
of the chambers, so far as they go, are the same as those
which I obtained from the cairns I have now described. On
the floors Mr. Ehind found bones, unburnt, and in the floors
burnt bones and pottery, but he met with no flint chips or
implements of any kind ; and his attention was not attracted
to the external or structural form, although he remarked
that the form of the internal chamber was similar to that of
the greatest of the Irish cairns at New Grange, in Meath.
In order to determine how far the external configuration of
these four cairns might correspond with the new idea of cairn
structure, which I had received from the investigation of the
horned cairns, I spent some time in making measured plans
of the four whose chambers had been examined by Mr.
llhind, and in clearing their external outlines from the mass
of fallen stones by which they were concealed. They were

154

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

greatly dilapidated, but the examination disclosed the fact
thnt they also had originally possessed an external structural
form on the ground-plan, the outlines of which were defined
in some cases by a single, and in others by a double, wall, in
the same manner as in the horned cairns.

Fig. 252.— Ground-plan of Chanil>ere<l Cairn at Yarhouse, Caithness.

The largest of this group, situated on the highest ridge
of the Yarhouse Hills, is an oval-shaped cairn (Fig. 252),
measuring about 55 feet in its longer, by 45 feet in its shorter,
diameter. Its chamber is now not more than 8 or 9 feet in

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 255

height, but the stones thrown out of it had been piled to
a considerable height all round it, so that the outer slope of
the cairn seemed nearly of its original altitude at about
15 feet. The passage leading into the chamber is about
20 feet in length, but only 2J feet wide, and scarcely more
in height at the entrance. It is built in three spaces,
separated by flagstones set on edge, and projecting slightly
into the passage-way. These help to carry the lintels, and
at the same time to steady the walls of the passage, as
we have noticed in the case of the Camster cairn. The
chamber is, like the passage, somewhat irregularly built.
It is tripartite, and at the height of about 7 feet above the
floor there are indications of convergence to form the spring
of the rudely arched roof. The first compartment is about
6 feet by 4 feet, the middle compartment about 9 feet by
5 feet, and the third compartment about 5 feet by 6 feet at
the entrance, and 4£ feet at the back. The divisional stones,
and the stone which forms the back of the chamber, are of
great size. The remains of a double wall, which seems to
have surrounded the whole structure, and defined its external
outline, were traced for a short distance on either side of the
exterior opening of the entrance passage. The outer of the
two bounding walls also appears for some distance at the
back of the cairn.

The second largest of these chambered cairns (which is
situated on the ridge of a hill considerably to the north-
ward of the first) is of circular form (Fig. 2 5 3), about 40 feet
in diameter. The original outline of its circumference is
defined by a double retaining wall, which we were able to
follow for a considerable distance on either side of the
exterior opening of the entrance passage. The passage itself
is about 15 feet in length, a little over 2£ feet wide at the
external entrance, and widening to about 3£ feet imme-
diately behind the jambs, which flank the entrance to the

256 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

chamber. The chamber in this instance is tripartite, with
a semicircular ending similar to that of the chamber in the

Fig. 253.— Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Yarhonse, Caithness.

long cairn in the same neighbourhood, which has been
previously described. The total length of the chamber is
about 15 feet, with a minimum width of about 5 feet The
divisional stones are less massive than in the oval cairn last
described ; the walls are greatly dilapidated, and all the
lintels of the passage gone.

The third cairn (which is situated in the immediate
neighbourhood of the first) is considerably smaller (Fig. 254),
being only about 30 feet in diameter. The passage, which is
about 8 feet in length, leads into a tripartite chamber, nearly
15 feet in length, and nowhere exceeding 5 feet in width.
The back of the chamber reaches further towards the back
of the cairn than in any of the other examples, and the three
compartments into which it is divided are of nearly equal

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

257

length. The divisional stones are large, but not high, and
on account of the dilapidation of the cairn there is no
distinct indication of the spring of the arched roof.

Fig. 254. — Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Yarhouse, Caithness.

The fourth cairn (Fig. 255) is in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the first and third, and is the smallest of the

Fig. 255. — Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Yarhouse, Caithness.

series. It is slightly oval in plan, measuring about 30 feet
in the longer and about 25 feet in the shorter diameter.
17

258 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

The passage is about 10 feet in length by 2£ feet in width.
It leads into a chamber subdivided into two compartments,
the first of which is triangular in form and about 8 feet in
length, the side walls slightly curved, while the second is
more rectangular in form, about 6 feet in length and 4£ feet
wide. Like the last, this cairn is greatly dilapidated, and
the method of roofing the chamber is not now obvious, but
the probability is that, like all the others, it was covered by
an arching of overlapping stones.

In another cairn, locally known as Cam High, which I
excavated, on the opposite shore of the Loch of Yarhouse, the
chamber had been completely destroyed by being quarried
out for lintels to a neighbouring house and steading, but the
exterior outline of the cairn showed the double circular
bounding wall still standing to a height of from 3 to 4 feet,
completely round the original circumference, though now
imbedded about 6 feet within the verge of the loose stones
which formed the base of the cairn.

Finally, I excavated a cairn on the hill above Bruan
(Fig. 256), which, as we shall subsequently see, forms a
connecting link between the Caithness form and the Orkney
form of chambered cairn. It was externally about 40 feet
in diameter, rising to a height of about 1 4 feet. The passage
was 1 0 feet long, 2 feet 9 inches wide at the entrance, where
it was 3 feet high, increasing in width and height inwards
until it became 4£ feet wide, and 4 feet high at the entrance
to the chamber. The chambered interior of the cairn
differed from that of the others, in this respect, that it con-
sisted of a principal chamber of two compartments (like that
of the cairn near Garrywhin J), and also presented the
peculiarity of a small side-chamber opening from the
principal chamber. The dividing slabs in the principal
chamber did not rise to the roof, which formed one vault

1 Figured and described at p. 247.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 259

over both compartments. The first compartment measured
8 feet on the floor from side wall to side wall, and 4 feet
from the jamb-like stones at the aperture of the passage to
the divisional stones between the two compartments. The
second compartment, with rounded corners, was about 9 feet
diameter, and the extreme height of the walls remaining
was about 8 feet. They slanted outwards from the base to
nearly the middle of their height, and were again brought
inwards above the middle by the overlapping of the stones
to form a dome-shaped roof. As usual a great stone was set
in the back wall facing the entrance, and there were other

f 10
Fig. 256. — Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn near Bruan, Caithness.

two great slabs in the middle of the side walls where the
second pair of dividing stones ought to have been, but instead
of projecting across the floor, they were set flush with the
face of the wall and the building carried over them. The
small side-chamber opening off the principal chamber on
the south side measured 4 feet by 3 feet, and was only
3j feet high. It was irregular in shape, one of its end
walls measuring 3| feet, and the other only 2 feet on the
floor. The roof was formed of a single flag, the floor of

260 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

another, and a third formed the partition between it and the
principal chamber. On raising the flag which formed the
floor of the side-chamber, another flag was found immediately
beneath it, and beneath both a layer of clay 4 inches in
depth, plentifully intermixed with charcoal, ashes, and
burnt bones. Beneath this layer of clay there was a third
flagstone, which lay upon the undisturbed subsoil of the
hill. The whole floor of the principal chamber and the inner
part of the entrance passage consisted of an accumulation of
ashes and broken and burnt bones, about 1 2 inches in depth.
The bones were those of human beings and animals. The
human bones, though plentiful, were highly calcined, and so
much broken that it was impossible to determine the number
of skeletons they represented. The animal bones included
those of the horse, the ox, the red deer, the swine, and sheep
or goat, and a large-sized dog. Flint chips occurred in
less abundance than in the neighbouring cairns, but the
quantity of broken pottery was very great, amounting to
several hundreds of fragments. Many of these were plainly
portions of round-bottomed vessels, mostly of a dark, hard-
baked paste, and occasionally ornamented with impressions
of the finger-tip and nail thrust obliquely into the clay.
The only other objects found were an oblong pebble with
smoothed ends and sides, and a flat piece of bone 3 inches
long with a smooth chisel-like edge — which may have been
moulding tools for pottery.

At Rhinavie, near Skelpick, in Strathnaver, Sutherland-
shire, there is a group of three cairns ranged in line (Fig. 257),
which were examined by the late Mr. Mackay of Skelpick,
at the instance of the late Dr. John Stuart, shortly after the
excavation of the Caithness Cairns had drawn attention to
their peculiar features. They have been recently described
by Rev. Robert Munro, Old Kilpatrick,1 and I am indebted

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., voL xviiL p. 228.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS.

261

Fig. 257. —View and Ground-plau of Group of Chambered
Cairns at Rhinavie, Strathnaver.

262

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

to him for the use of his drawings and plans, which show
their present appearance. They lie pretty nearly north and
south, the two long cairns having their higher and wider ends
to the north. The largest of the two long cairns is 230 feet
long and about 80 feet wide at the broad end, narrowing to
about 50 feet wide at the other end. It contains a tripartite
chamber in the north end, reached by a passage 1 7 feet in
length, and about 2£ feet in width, and nearly the same in
height. The first compartment of the chamber opening
from the passage is at present inaccessible in consequence of
the walls coming towards each other ; the second compart-
ment is 5 feet in length, by about the same in width, and
originally about 6 feet 1 0 inches in height ; the third com-
partment is over 7 feet in diameter, and about 8 feet in
height. At the exterior extremity of the entrance passage
there is a semicircular arrangement of six upright stones
(Fig. 258) varying in height from 3 feet to 7 feet 10 inches,
and placed at distances varying from 1 0 feet to 1 6 feet apart.

Fig. 258.— North end of larger Chambered Cairn at Rhinavie.

They occupy a position with respect to the entrance passage
into the cairn similar to that of the expanding " horns " of
the Caithness cairns. A similar arrangement of smaller
stones exists at the lower end of the cairn.

The second, lying to the northward of the first cairn, is

CHAMBEEED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 263

an oblong heap of stones about 100 feet in length. It has
not been excavated, but there are indications of its
chambered character.

The third cairn, furthest to the north, is circular, about
60 feet in diameter, and contains a central chamber, the
walls of which are composed of five great slabs set on end,
and the intervals between them filled with dry built walling.
The chamber is about 8 feet in diameter, and nearly the
same in height.

No relics of any kind were discovered in the examina-
tion of these chambers, but the floors still afford indications
of the presence of charcoal and burnt bones, and there can
be no doubt that their contents were analogous to those of
the other Caithness cairns.

A fourth cairn of the same type (Fig. 259) is situated at
some distance from these, on the other side of the burn of
Skelpick. It is about 220 feet in length, and 20 to 30 feet
in width. It lies north and south, and has a passage 10 or
1 2 feet in length, leading into a chamber of two irregularly
oval compartments, the first about 8 feet by 10, and the
second about 10 by 12 feet, each being apparently about
8 feet high. The lintel over the opening leading from the
one compartment into the other is still in its place, and
measures 9 feet in length, 3 feet 6 inches in height, and
18 inches in thickness. The walls of the chamber are
formed of great stones set on end at intervals all round, the
interspaces being filled up with dry walling.

From this investigation of the peculiar features of these
Caithness cairns, it is thus apparent that they differ widely
in their character from the structureless cairns of the
Bronze Age, and that their typical characteristics are (1) the
presence of a definite external form, which is structural,
and (2) the presence of an interior chamber accessible by a
passage. It is also apparent that in this small area there

264

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

are two well-marked varieties of this typical form. One of
these resembles the Bronze Age cairns in the circularity of
its external form, while differing from them in its internal
construction. The other differs from the Bronze Age cairns,

I t * f 9

Fig. 259.— Ground-plan and enlarged plan of Chambers of Cairn, near Skelpick.

both in external configuration and internal construction.
The inference is that the circular form passed on into the
Bronze Age, while the other form did not, and that the form
which is most unlike the Bronze Age form is the earlier of
the two.

This earlier and more remarkable variety is externally
a construction distinguished by its length — ranging in these
examples from 240 to 190 feet in length, lying approxi-
mately east and west, with the higher end to the east, and

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 265

terminating at both ends in curvilinear projections, the
whole external outline being defined by a double wall of
dry-built masonry. In addition to this peculiarity of their
external form, they also possess the peculiarity of being
provided with an internal chamber, placed usually in the
higher end of the structure, to which access is obtained by a
passage of considerable length. The chamber is subdivided
by partitions of slabs, and its roof is formed of dry-built
vaulting. In the totality of their peculiar features they
differ from all constructions of similar purpose, and con-
stitute a specific group, stamped with the characteristics of
a strongly-marked individuality. But in their essential
characteristics, they are easily recognisable as outlying
examples of a general type, whose area is not confined to
Scotland, although it is not known to extend beyond the
bounds of Britain. A considerable number of examples
have been more or less completely investigated in England,
chiefly in the counties of York, Wiltshire, Somersetshire,
and Gloucestershire.1 They are immense mounds varying
from 100 or 200 to 300 or 400 feet in length, from 30 to 80
feet in breadth, and from 3 to 10 or 12 feet in elevation.
They usually lie east and west, having the higher end to
the east, and the primary interments under the higher end.
They contain deposits of many human skeletons, with bones
of animals, and evidences of funeral feasts. In the south
of England the burials in them are mostly unburnt, while
in the north cremation seems to have prevailed. Manu-
factured articles are by no means numerous in their deposits,
but, when they do occur, they consist chiefly of flake knives
and scrapers of flint, and leaf -shaped arrow-heads of the

1 "In no county of England are Long Barrows so numerous as in
Wiltshire, where I count as many as sixty of these large grave-mounds,
of which eleven in the north of the county are chambered, while there
are thirteen with chambers in Gloucestershire, three in. Somerset, and
one in Berkshire." — Dr. Thurnam, in Archceoloyia, vol. xlii. p. 169.

266 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

same material, with fragments of pottery, — dark-coloured,
hard-baked, round-bottomed vessels, sometimes with rudi-
mentary ear-shaped handles, and rarely ornamented.1

One, called the West Tump Barrow, in the Cotteswold
Hills, Gloucestershire, recently excavated by Sir John
Maclean, measures 149 feet in length, 76 feet wide at the
one end, and 41 feet at the other, its greatest elevation
being 1 0 feet 3 inches. It is slightly horned at the wide
end, which looks to the south-east, but it shows the pecu-
liarity, which is common to all the English examples, of
having no such projections at the narrow end. The ex-
ternal wall, which defines the structural ground-plan, is still
standing to a height of 3 feet. Entering from one side of
the structure is a passage leading into the chamber, in which
the remains of many burials were found. In singular agree-
ment with the character of the Caithness burials, no imple-
ments, ornaments, or pottery were found, with the single
exception of a well-formed leaf-shaped arrow-head of flint,
which was found in the passage leading to the chamber.2
Another cairn of the same character, at Uley, in the same
district, is 120 feet long, 85 feet in greatest width, and
10 feet high. Its projections at the wide end, answering
to the horns of the Caithness cairns, are doubly convex in

1 Describing the Long Barrow at Upper Swell, in Gloucestershire,
Professor Rolleston says : — "This Barrow may be taken as a fairly
illustrative specimen of the horned variety of Long Barrow — a variety of
the tumulus of the Non-metallic Period, which is represented in Caithness,
as described by Mr. Joseph Anderson, as well as in the south-west of
England, and found to contain these interments similarly arranged, and
pottery and implements of a similar type and rudeness to those which
we have found here."

- See the descriptions of these Horned Long Barrows of Gloucester-
shire, by Sir John Maclean (with plans and drawings), in the Transaction*
of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, voL v. pp. 86,
201 ; Dr. Thurnam's paper on Long Barrows, in Archaologia, voL xlii,
for those of Wiltshire ; and Canon Greenwell's British Barrows for those
of Yorkshire, etc.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF CAITHNESS. 267

their outlines, giving to the ground-plan the appearance of
an extremely elongated heart-shaped figure. Between these
projections, as in most of the Caithness examples, is the
entrance to a chamber, 22 feet long, 4| feet wide, and 5 feet
high. Another cairn at Ablington, in the same district, is
270 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 12 feet high; its base
defined by a double wall, faced only to the outside, a feature
which we have seen to be characteristic of the Caithness
examples. Another, at Bela's Knap, 197 feet in length,
75 feet wide, and 12 feet high, had also an elongated heart-
shaped form, with several chambers entering from the sides.
Others, at Upper and Nether Swell, Avening, and Eyford,
exhibit more or less of the same general character. In view
of the excessively pronounced peculiarities of that character,
there is no escape from the inference that they are all the
work of one race of men. In the words of the late Professor
Rolleston, "The peculiarities of a Horned Cairn are such
that it is impossible to imagine that they do not indicate to
us that one race of man, and one only, must have combined
them as they are combined. And their geographical dis-
tribution shows with equal conclusiveness that of whatever
stock that race may have been, they were a homogeneous
people spread over the whole area of Britain."

268 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

LECTURE V.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

IN this Lecture I shall describe first a series of cham-
bered cairns lying to the south of the Caithness group,
in the county of Argyll; second, a series of chambered
cairns lying to the north of the Caithness group, in the
Orkney Isles, for the purpose of comparing their character-
istics and contents with those of the typical group; and,
lastly, I shall notice briefly a variety of chambered cairn
occurring in Strathnairn, which, by the peculiar feature of
an encompassing circle of standing stones, appears to pre-
sent a transitional form between the types of the un-
encircled chambered cairn of the Age of Stone and the
encircled grave-ground and unchambered cairn of the Age
of Bronze.

In 1871 Dr. E. Angus Smith explored a large chambered
cairn at Achnacree, near Loch Etive, Argyllshire.1 In form
the cairn was approximately circular, 75 feet in diameter,
and rising to a height of 1 5 feet in the centre. There were
traces of an encircling trench and embankment at a distance
of about 30 feet from the exterior base of the cairn. The

1 A detailed account of his explorations in Argyllshire was given by
Dr. Angus Smith in the Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., voL ix. p. 396, and also
in a separate work, subsequently published, and entitled Loch Etive and
the Son* of Cimach.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 269

entrance to the interior faced the south-east, and the chamber
was reached by a passage about 28 feet in length, 2 feet
wide, and 3| feet high, lined throughout with flat slabs, and
covered with lintels. The constructional features of the
chamber and passage are shown in the ground-plan and
section, Fig. 260. The chamber resembled that of the
Caithness cairns in being triply divided, but differed in the
manner of the division. In this case each of the three com-
partments of the triply divided interior space formed a
separately roofed and walled chamber, the second compart-
ment entering by a doorway with a raised sill in the back
of the first, and the third entering similarly from the back
of the second. The passage decreased slightly in height
from the entrance inwards, so that at the entrance into the
first division of the chambered interior it measured only
about 2 feet 2 inches square. The first of the three com-
partments of the internal chamber measured on the ground
6 feet by 4 feet. The walls were formed of flat slabs, set on
edge in the lower part, with dry walling over them. The
upper layers of this dry walling overlapped each other
towards the interior, so as to bring the space to be covered in
to an area of 5 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 1 0 inches, at a height
of 7 feet from the floor. The roof was then finished by a
single covering stone of great size. The other two compart-
ments are of smaller area, and present no overlapping of
the upper parts of the walls, but are simply covered in at
a lower elevation by large flat slabs.

The floors of the three divisions of the chamber were
covered with loose stones. There is no distinct record of
their contents, so far as relates to the burial deposits, beyond
the fact that in the earthy layer which formed the floor there
were found a number of fragments of urns of peculiar form,
which are fortunately preserved. One of these urns (Fig. 261)
is almost entire. It is formed of a fine dark-coloured, hard-

270

SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIMES.

ft*

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 271

baked paste, with little or no intermixture of grit. It
is a wide-mouthed, thick-lipped, round-bottomed vessel,

Figs. 261, 262.— Urns from the Chambered Cairn at Achnacree, Argyllshire
(4 inches and 3J inches in height).

measuring 7 inches in diameter and 4 inches in depth.
Its broad flattened rim is slightly bevelled outwardly, and
recurved below. It is destitute of ornamentation, but the
smooth exterior surface has the appearance of being slightly
scraped vertically. A second urn (Fig. 262), of which only
a few of the fragments were recovered, exhibits the same
peculiar form, but with more upright sides, and two exterior
projections near the spring of the rounded bottom. A third
urn of larger size, but of the same round-bottomed form, has
a broad bevelled lip, and is marked by a series of vertical
scorings or scrapings all over its exterior surface. In form
and character it closely resembles that shown in Fig. 263
from another Argyllshire cairn, next to be described.

In October 1864 a large cairn at Largie, near Kilmartin
in Argyllshire, was opened by Eev. Canon Greenwell of
Durham.1 The cairn had been a very large one, with a
diameter of upwards of 130 feet, but the greater part of the
stones had been removed for walls and drains. In the centre
was a chamber lying nearly north and south. Its length was
19 feet, its breadth somewhat less than 4 feet, and its height
about 9 1 feet. The sides were formed of large slabs, with
portions of dry walling of smaller stones, and the roof
1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. vi. p. 336.

272 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

lintelled over with long slabs. The south end of the chamber
was formed of a single large slab, and at the opposite end
two large upright slabs projected from the side walls, leaving
a kind of doorway between their opposing edges. The great
dilapidation of the cairn may account for the absence of
a passage leading into the chamber from the outside of the
rain i. The chamber was divided into four compartments by
divisional slabs set across the floor. Three of these had been
previously disturbed. In the fourth and largest compartment
there was a cist placed on the floor in one corner, — a circum-
stance previously noticed also in one of the Caithness cairns.1
In this case the cist was open, and rifled. The substance of
the floor of the compartment consisted of a layer of dark
earthy matter, plentifully interspersed with burnt bones,
human and animal. In it were also found a number of
flakes, knives, and scrapers of flint, and five barbed arrow-
heads of the same material, unburnt Of the arrow-heads
three were perfect, and two broken, — all beautifully and

Fig. 263. — Urn found in the Chambered Cairn at Largie, Kilmartin,
Argyllshire (6J inches in height).

delicately chipped. Close to the side of the chamber was
found an urn (Fig. 263) of the same form and character as
those from the cairn at Achnacree. It is, however, con-

1 At Yarhouse, described in the previous Lecture, p. 239.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 273

siderably larger, being 6£ inches high, and 12f inches wide
at the mouth. In shape it is a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed
vessel, with upright sides, a broad flat lip bevelled outwardly
and recurving below. It is made of a fine, dark-coloured,
hard-baked paste, and the whole surface is ornamented with
vertical flutings or scrapings, which meet in the centre of the
rounded bottom of the vessel.

At Kilchoan, in the same county, in 1864, a chambered
cairn was opened by Eev. K. J. Mapleton. The bulk of the
cairn had been previously removed, and its height and
diameter are therefore unknown. Its remains were traceable
for 36 feet on the south side of the chamber, so that it had
probably exceeded 70 feet in diameter. The chamber was
1 4 feet 8 inches in length, 8 feet 3 inches in height at the
highest part, 4 feet 8 inches wide at the further end, and
2 feet 8 inches at the entrance. Its sides were formed of
massive slabs, the roof also was covered in by slabs of great
size and weight, partially supported on struts formed
by long slabs set on end behind the side walls. The
middle pair of struts carried a cross-bearing stone, 6 feet
10 inches long and 20 inches thick, placed under the heavy
end of the largest roofing slab. The chamber was divided
into three compartments by slabs standing on edge across
the floor, but not reaching to the roof. The floor of the
chamber contained deposits of burnt bones, with flint knives,
scrapers, and flakes, and fragments of a well-made urn with
a raised moulding and vertical flutings.

In this group of Argyllshire cairns, we recognise the
same essential features of construction and contents that
give typical character to the Caithness cairns. The ex-
terior characteristics are wanting, but this may be due in
some cases to the dilapidation of the structures themselves,
and in others to incomplete examination. The interior
characteristics are that the cairns are chambered and the
18

'274

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

chambers furnished with access from the exterior by a
passage. The chambers are subdivided into compartments,
and the roofs are partly vaulted and partly covered with
gnat flat slabs. The contents of the chamber floors are
burials after cremation, accompanied by urns of a peculiarly
fine, dark-coloured, and hard-baked paste. The urns them-
selves are wide-mouthed, thick-lipped, round-lx>ttomed
vessels, with a peculiar ornamentation of vertical scrapings
or flutings over the whole exterior surface. No traces of
implements of metal are present, and any implements or
weapons that have been recovered from the deposits are
knives, scrapers, and arrow-heads of chipped flint.

To the north of Caithness there is, in the Orkneys, a
group of cairns of a singularly interesting character. They
are few in number, but very remarkable for their magnitude
and the special characteristics of their construction. The
best known of these is the chambered mound of Maeshowe,
situated nearly a mile to the east of the great stone circle of
Stennis, on the opposite side of the Loch of Stennis. Ex-
ternally it has not the appearance of a cairn, but of a mound,
92 feet in diameter and 36 feet in height, surrounded by a
trench 40 feet wide, and still in some parts about 8 feet deep.
The mound covers an internal construction of stones, con-
taining, as shown in the annexed ground-plan and section
(Fig. 264), a central chamber, about 15 feet square, to which
access is provided by a passage 54 feet in length. The
doorway by which the passage enters the chamber is 4 feet
8 inches high, and 3 feet 4 inches wide, decreasing in height
and width as it proceeds outwards, till at the exterior
entrance it becomes only 2 feet 4 inches wide. The original
height of the exterior entrance is unknown, as the covering
slabs were wanting for 22i feet inwards from the exterior
entrance. About 30 feet outwards from the chamber there
are checks for a door, and immediately behind them a recess

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

275

in one side of the passage, 2 feet deep and 3| feet in height
and width, in front of which there was found a slab, which
might have been used as a door.1 From this doorway in-
wards, the passage is 4 feet 4 inches high, and 3 feet 3 inches
wide, continuing of that height and width for 26 feet, when
it is again narrowed to 2 feet 5 inches by two slabs placed
upright against the walls to form checks for another door.

Fig. 264. — Ground-plan and section of the central part of the Tumulus
of Maeshowe, with the Chamber.

The chamber, which measures on the floor 15 feet 4 inches
by 14 feet 10 inches, was about 13 feet high when excavated
by Mr. Farrer in 1861, but the upper part had fallen in, and
the original height may have been nearly 20 feet. The
passage enters in the middle of the west side, and in the
centre of the east, north, and south sides of the chamber are

1 Maeshowe is the only chambered cairn in Scotland in which this
arrangement occurs.

'-'76

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

openings about 2j feet square placed at a height of about
3 feet above the floor, and giving access to small oblong cells
about 3 feet high, 4 feet 6 inches wide, and varying from
7 feet to 5 feet 6 inches in length. The stones of whicli
the chamber is built (see Fig. 265) are undressed slabs and
blocks of the hard, close-grained, and thin-bedded claystone

Fig. 265. — View of the Central Chamber in Maeshowe, looking toward* the
passage (15 feet in length by 14 feet 10 inches in width).

of the district, which rise from their beds in rectangular
blocks and slabs with clean vertical joints. This natural
peculiarity of the stone has enabled the builders to fit them
closely together, and to build their walls with nearly as
smooth and vertical surfaces as if the stones had been hewn
for the purpose. In the corners buttress-like projections
are placed, to assist in carrying the overlapping stones of the

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 277

roof. These are, for the most part, single stones of the
requisite length, but of varying thickness, laid upon each
other, so that each successively projects beyond the stone
below it. As has been said, the roof had fallen in, or had
been partially broken down at some time previous to the
excavation in 1861. In point of fact, there are indications
which lead to the conclusion that the chamber was broken
open, probably in the hope of finding treasure, in the twelfth
century.

Within the range of from 3 to 1 1 feet above the floor,
the walls of the chamber are thickly covered with Eunic in-
scriptions, comprising in the aggregate more than nine hundred
letters. The forms of the letters are those of the later variety
of the Scandinavian Eunes, which, as Professor Munch in-
forms us, are never older than about A.D. 1150. They are but
slightly scratched on the stones, and the majority of the in-
scriptions are such as men seeking the shelter or concealment
of the broken chamber might scribble from mere idleness.1
But one of the longer inscriptions is of greater interest,
because it supplies the information of the breaking open of
the mound, and gives an indication of the time when this
was done. It states that the Jorsala-farers — the pilgrims to

1 One inscription states that " Thatir the Viking came here to weary."
Another gives the whole letters of the Runic alphabet. Others consist
simply of a man's name, with the formula, "wrote this," or "carved
this," as " Hermund Hardaxe carved these Rimes." One tells us what
was thought of the origin of the mound itself by these scribblers. Their
tradition was that it was Lodbrok's sorcery hall. Ragnar Lodbrok was
a mythical hero, who filled the place in Scandinavian legendary lore which
was given by the Celts in their popular tales to Fingal, and by the
English in their romantic poetry to King Arthur. The meaning of this
attribution of the mound to Lodbrok as a sorcery hall is therefore that
the people who ascribed to it this fabulous origin knew nothing of its
real history. Translations of the whole of these inscriptions will be found
in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. v. p. 247,
and in Mr. Farrer's privately printed work on Maeshowe, which gives
facsimiles of the inscriptions themselves.

278 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Jerusalem — broke open the Orkahaug in the lifetime of the
blessed Earl, and that there was (supposed to be) much
treasure hidden in it, but that the treasure had been carried
away before the Jerusalem men broke into it. The name
" Orkahaug " occurs once in the Orkneyinga Saga in such a
connection as would fit this locality.1 It occurs nowhere
else unless in this inscription on the wall of the chamber,
and here it seems to be the name which was then applied to
the mound of Maeshowe. Earl Rognvald, the saint, who
died in 1158, and was canonised, is the " blessed Earl " of
the inscription. In 1153 he performed the pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. The Saga tells the names of the Orkneymen
who were to go with him, and that they occupied two winters
in making their preparations for the journey. In the spring
of 1152 Earl Rognvald went to Norway, and gathered a band
of his friends and their followers there, who came over with
him to Orkney. There they spent the winter of 1152-53,
until the expedition was ready. In the enforced idleness of
such a body of rough adventurers, the breaking open of such
a mound as Maeshowe would be a welcome pastime.2 Among

1 "Earl Harold commenced his voyage (from Caithness) to the
Orkneys daring Yule-tide. He had four ships and a hundred men. Two
nights he lay under Gareksay. They landed in Hafnarvag in Hrossey
(the mainland isle), and the thirteenth day of Yule-tide they walked to
Fiord (Firth). They spent the Yule-Holiday at Orkahaug. There two
of their men were seized with madness, which retarded their journey."
The Orkw-y'uvja Saga (Edinburgh, 1873) p. 159.

1 Barrows and cairns at a very early time attracted treasure-seekers.
The Anglo-Saxon poem of Btowulf gives a vivid description of a chambered
tumulus, with its treasure of weapons and rich ornaments, and vessels of
heathen gold, watched over by a dragon. The " breaking of a how " had
always been a famous exploit in the estimation of the Northmen. The
earlier Sagas refer to such adventures as proofs of the greatest daring, for
the breaking of the tomb and spoiling of the treasure was never com-
pleted without a personal encounter with the Haw/butt — the tenant of the
tomb, — who seized his weapons and started up to confront the despoilers
with his supernatural strength. The " Hogboy " of Maeshowe still lives
in the imagination and legends of the country people. The Annals of

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 279

the names that are carved oil the stones of its chamber are
those of Ingibiorg, Ingigerd, Thorir, Helgi, Ingi, and Arnfinn.
All these are names of persons who are mentioned in the
Saga as living in Earl Eognvald's time, and several of them
were closely connected with him.1

But this episode in the later history of the chambered
mound of Maeshowe has no bearing whatever upon the

Ulster record the breaking of the great tumulus at Dowth on the Boyne,
by the Northmen. Royal licences were sometimes granted for the digging
of barrows in England, and, so late as 1344, Thomas of Walsingham
records the slaying of the dragon that guarded a barrow, and the recovery
of a great treasure of gold by the retainers of the Earl of Warrenne.

1 There are other indications which point to this period as the
probable date of these inscriptions. The forms of the letters accord
with the style used in Norway in the first half of the twelfth century,
and the orthography almost exactly resembles that of the earlier Ice-
landic MSS. from about 1150. Two of the inscriptions are associated with
crosses. One, on the great buttress next the doorway on the north side of
the chamber, contains the name Thorir, and beneath it a Latin cross with
circular dots at the extremities. Another, on the corresponding buttress
at the south side of the chamber, has the words, " Ofram Sigurdson
carved, these Runes," surrounded by six equal-armed crosses, and a
seventh in the centre of the inscription. On the edge of the same
buttress is the figiire of a nondescript animal, carved with much spirit,
but in a purely conventional style. In form and attitude it somewhat
resembles the griffin of the West Highland crosses, but the style is more
archaic, and its characteristics are more akin to those of the later Celtic
manuscripts. It stands with its head thrown back, its tongue protruding,
and one fore-paw uplifted. Its body is covered with scale-like markings
similar to those which are characteristic of the nondescript animals
employed in the decoration of the Manx crosses of the twelfth century.
The tail of the animal is represented as curving under it, and passing
through the body upwards, to terminate in a complicated scroll-like
ending. This is a Celtic peculiarity, conspicuous in the later Irish
manuscripts. Lastly, it has the Celtic eye — backwardly pointed,
forwardly rounded. The eye of the Scandinavian conventional beast is
invariably the reverse of this — backwardly rounded, forwardly pointed.
This characteristic is constant in the examples of Scandinavian con-
ventional beasts carved on the Rune-inscribed monuments of Norway and
Sweden. The general bearing of the whole of the indications afforded
by the characteristics of the inscriptions, and the carvings which are
associated with them, is towards their attribution to a twelfth-century
date.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

questions of its origin and purpose. As I have said, the indi-
cations of that purpose, and the evidences of its earlier
history, in all probability lay hidden in its floor, and have not
been placed on record either by its earlier or later explorers.
But the character of the structure itself, its chamber and
passage, and the vaulting of its roof, link it with the class of
structures which I have been describing, and prevent its being
linked with any other typical class.1 I have therefore no
hesitation in concluding that the structure of Maeshowe is
closely allied by its essential characteristics to the type of
chambered cairn which we have traced on the mainland of
Scotland from Caithness to Argyll. But it belongs to a
variety of that type which is strongly differentiated. It has
the passage, the chamber, and the vaulted roof that are the
common features of the type ; it has also the subdivision of
the interior, which is the prominent characteristic of the
majority of the examples that have been described ; but it
differs most strikingly in the manner in which that sub-
division is accomplished. In most of the Caithness cairns,
and in some of the Argyllshire examples, the subdivision is
accomplished within the area of the chamber itself, by slabs
set transversely across the floor. In one of the Caithness
cairns (Fig. 256), a small side cell is constructed, opening
off the chamber. This is the method adopted in Maeshowe.
The Caithness cairn has a subdivided chamber, with a cell off
one side ; Maeshowe has an undivided chamber, with a cell

1 The class of sepulchral structures characterised by an internal
chamber constructed of stone, with a vaulted roof, and having a passage
leading into it from the outside, does not exist in Norway. It is not
uncommon in Ireland, where the largest examples are found. Chambered
sepulchral mounds or cairns, with passages leading into them, are found
in Denmark and Brittany, but they differ from those in Scotland and
Ireland, in being roofed with flat stones of enormous size, and not vaulted.
But, whatever may be the differences in the construction of the chamber,
all the chambered cairns of the north-western area of Europe appear to
belong to the Stone Age.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 281

oft' each of its three sides, the fourth giving access to the
passage. This development however has some title to be
classed as a local variety.

On the Holin of Papa Westray, a small uninhabited
island lying off the west side of Papa, there is a very
peculiar structure on the highest part of the island, which
here rises to an elevation of about 60 feet. It is an oblong
cairn with rounded ends, 115 feet long, 55 feet broad, and
10 feet high. It is a chambered cairn, but in the form and
arrangements of the chamber (shown in the accompanying
ground-plan, Fig. 266) it presents certain remarkable
peculiarities. The entrance is on the east side, near the
middle of its length. It is a low and narrow passage, 1 foot
10 inches wide, 2 feet 8 inches high, and 18 feet in length.
It is lintelled over by large oblong flags, which are mostly
placed on edge for strength ; the last lintel at the inner end
measures 4 feet in length, 2| feet in breadth, and about a
foot in thickness. The chamber to which the passage gives
access is long and narrow, measuring 67 feet in length, by
about 5 feet in width throughout. It is divided into three
compartments by two partition walls thrown across towards
the ends, the centre compartment being 45 feet in length,
the larger of the two end compartments 1 2 feet, and the
smaller 7 feet in length. Opening off the main chamber are
a series of small cells, irregularly formed, and roofed by
overlapping stones. Off the central compartment there are,
on the one side, one double and two single cells ; and on the
other side is the same arrangement, but in reverse order.
Off each of the three sides of each of the end compartments
there is a single cell. The internal arrangements of this
cairn thus consist of a principal chamber divided into three
compartments, and surrounded by ten single and two double
cells opening off the main chamber. The side cells average
between 4 and 5 feet in length, 3 feet in width, and from 3 to

282

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

5i feet in height Their doorways are on the level of the
floor of the main chamber, thus differing from the side cells
in Maeshowe, which are elevated 3 feet above the floor. The

doorways here vary from 1 8 inches to 2 feet in width, and
from 20 inches to 2 feet in height, so that the cells can only be
entered by squeezing in on all-fours. The main chamber is

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 283

from 9 to 10 feet in height, but the upper parts of the walls
are gone, although the height could not have been much
greater. Captain Thomas remarks that when the structure
was excavated by him in 185 1,1 the convergence of the side
walls to within 2 feet 8 inches of each other still remained.
When I saw it in 1872 it was much dilapidated, and the
convergence in some places scarcely perceptible.

As in the case of Maeshowe, the excavation of this
remarkable structure was absolutely destitute of results, so
far as the evidence to be derived from an investigation of the
contents of the floors is concerned. No implements or other
relics were found, and we are left to draw conclusions as to
the character of the structure from its typical characteristics
alone. But these are in themselves sufficient to determine
conclusively its typical relations. It possesses the character-
istics 'which are typical of the Caithness cairns, though
strongly differentiated in its details, It is a chambered
cairn, with a subdivided chamber ; it resembles them also
in possessing a definite external outline, a facing wall 2 to
3 feet in height being still traceable along the side next
the entrance. It possesses the tripartite character of the
Caithness cairns, in combination with the special character
given to Maeshowe by the construction of cells in the walls
of the main chamber. It has the low narrow passage
characteristic of the "house of the dead," and it stands
conspicuously, like the majority of cairns, on the highest
point of the island, so as to be seen afar of the passers-by
on land and sea.

At Quoyness, in Elsness, in the island of Sanday,
Orkney, a large chambered cairn (Fig. 267) was excavated
by Mr. Farrer and Mr. Petrie in 1867.2 The cairn is close

1 "Celtic Antiquities of Orkney," in Archceologla, vol. xxxiv. p. 127.

2 It is described, but very imperfectly, by Mr. Farrer in the Proceed-
ings of the Soc. Antiq. Scot., voL vii. p. 398. The ground-plan has been
drawn by Sir H. Dryden from Mr^ Petrie's measurements and notes.

284

SCOTLAND IN I'AGAN TIMES.

to the sea, and only a few feet above high-water mark. It
had been considerably reduced by the removal of stones for
various purposes before its investigation by Mr. Fairer. Its
diameter was about 63 feet, and its greatest height about
12£ feet. From the quantity of debris about and around it,
there is no doubt that originally it must have been very
much larger. The exterior outline of the cairn, which was

Fig. 267.— Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Quoyness, near
Elsness, Saiulay, Orkney.

circular in form, seemed to have been defined by a double
wall, faced only to the outside, after the manner of the
chambered cairns of Caithness. The face of the inner sur-
rounding wall was about 3 feet 10 inches from the external
wall face, and both were still about 4 feet high. On the
south-east side of the cairn was the entrance to the passage.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 285

The passage itself was 24 feet in length, 3 feet high, and
21 inches wide, roofed throughout its length by flat lintels
laid across, and slightly widening and increasing in height
towards the chamber. The chamber in the centre of the
cairn was of oblong shape, and nearly rectangular, 12| feet
in length, 5J feet wide, and the walls still standing to a
height of 12 feet. The roof of course was gone. Opening
off this chamber were the entrances to six smaller, irregu-
larly oval cells. These entrances were from 18 to 23 inches
wide, and but little over 2 feet in height. The cells to
which they gave access were placed two on each of the long
sides, and one on each of the ends of the central chamber.
Their walls rose with an inward curve to a height of from
5 to 6 feet, and at that height the roofs were closed in with
flat stones. The two largest of these cells are 7 feet 2 inches
in length by 4 feet 8 inches in breadth, and 6 feet by 4 feet
respectively; the others are slightly smaller. At the dis-
tance of 1 2 feet within the external wall there was a retain-
ing wall within the mass of the cairn surrounding the
chamber, similar to that in the cairn at Ormiegill, near
Ulbster, in Caithness.1 The structural characteristics of this
cairn thus combine the peculiarities of two local groups:
the double external walling, denning its circular outlines,
and the retaining wall surrounding the chamber, are features
of the Caithness group, and the oblong rectangular chamber
with smaller cells opening from its sides are features of the
Orkney group. The floors of the chamber and its surround-
ing cells do not appear to have been examined with sufficient
care,2 but the nature of the relics that were found, when
taken in connection with the general features of the struc-
ture, is sufficient evidence of the sepulchral character of

1 See the description and figure of this cairn, p. 245.

2 The relics from the chambered cairns are mostly found imbedded in
the substance of the floors, sometimes at a considerable depth. '

186

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKs.

the cairn. In three of the smaller side cells quantities of
unburnt human bones were found, and in the central
chamber similar remains were also found. Dr. Thurnam
says of them : " There are fragments of twelve or fifteen
skulls, some male and some female, some of them children
or quite young persons; one or two of them have the
appearance of having been cleft prior to being interred,
and the teeth in the lower jaws are much corroded."
Among the human bones some bones of animals were
observed, which are described as "apparently of the ox."
No pottery is mentioned, but it is not stated that it was
looked for under the surfaces of the floors. Three objects
of human workmanship were found in the course of the
excavations. The precise position of their occurrence is
not recorded ; but it is noted by Mr. Petrie that one of the
two stone implements was found in one of the side cells.
It is of dark bituminous schist (Fig. 268), 4f inches long
and 2i inches diameter, with a longitudinal groove and

Figs. 268, 269.— Implements of Polished Stone from the Chambered
Cairn at Quoyness.

double-pointed ends. The other stone implement (Fig. 269),
of the same dark-coloured schist, is three-pointed, and has
two grooves passing round the central ridge opposite to the
longest of its three projections. Its appearance is suggestive

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, OEKNEY, ETC. 287

of the intention of its being fastened to the end of a handle,
in the line of its longest projection, by cords passing round
the grooves. The third implement (Fig. 270) is of bone,
7 inches in length, round and tapering, the surface corn-

Fig. 270.— Bone Implement from the Chambered Cairn
at Quoyness (7 inches in length).

pletely polished, and having a curious projection on one
side. All these implements are unique in their forms, and
I have nothing to say either as to their probable use, or
whether they may be or may not be of the time of the
original interments in this chambered cairn. But the cairn
itself exhibits, both in its structural features and in the
character of its contents, a series of characteristics which
sufficiently indicate its typical relationship.1

At Quanterness, near Kirkwall, on the north side of
Wideford Hill, are the remains of a structure of the same
typical character (Fig. 271). Externally it presented the
form of a truncated cone, 128 feet in circumference at the
base, and 1 4 feet in height. A long narrow passage led from
the exterior into a central chamber of oblong form, 21| feet
long, 6| feet broad, and 11| feet high, constructed and roofed
in the manner common to all those that have been described.
Off this central chamber were a series of six side cells, two
opening off each of the long sides of the chamber, and one
off each of its ends, precisely in the same manner as the

1 Mr. Farrer and Mr. Petrie have both suggested the possibility of
the cairn at Quoyness having been originally a broch, within the central
area or court of which a " Pict's House " was subsequently constructed.
But there is no essential feature of a broch apparent in the structure,
and all its features are essentially those of the chambered cairns. The
relics recovered from it are such as are characteristic of the sepulchral
cairns, and all the objects that are characteristic of the contents of the
brochs are absent from its contents.

288

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

side cells of the Quoyness example. They differed from the
side cells opening off the central chamber of Maeshowe, in
being placed on the same level as the floor of the central
chamber. The doorways, or openings leading into them
from the central chamber, were about 2 feet square. The

Fig. 271.— Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Quantemess, near
Kirkwall, Orkney.

floors of the central chamber and side cells, which were of
dark earthy clay, were plentifully charged with bones of
men and animals, unburnt, but mostly very much broken,
though in one of the cells an entire human skeleton was
found.

On the western declivity of Wideford Hill, overlooking
the Bay of Firth, another structure of the same description
was explored by Mr. George Petrie in 1849. Its external
appearance was that of a circular mound of moderate height,
and about 45 feet diameter. It contained a central chamber,

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 289

10 feet long, 5 feet broad, and 7£ feet high, roofed by the
overlapping of the stones of the side and end walls till
the top was contracted to a space of 7 feet long and 2 feet
wide, which could be easily spanned by stones laid across.
The side cells, which were only three in number, are placed
irregularly round the main chamber. The side cells are
about 6 feet long by 4 feet broad, and 6 feet high, differing
only by a few inches in their dimensions. They are roofed
in the same manner, by the walls converging until the roof
can be covered by a stone about a foot square. A bound-
ing wall, faced only to the outside, of which 2 feet of the
height still remained, surrounded the whole cairn at the
base — a feature which we have so often remarked in the
Caithness cairns. The chamber and side cells contained
great quantities of bones of the common domestic animals —
the horse, ox, sheep, and swine, just as the chambers of
the Caithness cairns did, but, as in the cases of Maeshowe
and the oblong cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray, no
human remains were noticed.

In this group of Orkney chambered cairns there4is a strik-
ing similarity of feature. They all possess a central chamber
with more or fewer side cells opening off it. This gives them
the distinctive character of a local variety of the general
type. In the main, they are the same as the cairns of Caith-
ness and Argyll, having internal chambers accessible by a
passage from the outside, and their exterior outline denned by
a bounding or retaining wall.1 But there are other sepulchral
structures in Orkney which present features more closely
allied to those of the Caithness cairns. On the Holm of Papa
Westray, on a low part of the Holm lying to the north-west

1 This exterior bounding wall is not noticed in all the descriptions of
the different examples, but Mr. Petrie, in a general description of these
structures, while he had no hesitation in concluding them to be sepul-
chral, states that " in every instance that has come under my observation,
they have been surrounded by a facing or wall about 2 feet high."

290 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

of the great oblong chambered cairn, there is another cairn
of smaller size, which presents the tripartite division of the
chamber, so characteristic of the Caithness cairns. The
structure was greatly dilapidated before I saw it in 1872,
but what remained was sufficiently distinct to enable me to
recognise it at once as a chambered cairn of the Caithness
type.1 The chamber was 1 2 feet long and 6 feet wide, and
was divided into three compartments by upright flagstones
projecting from each of the side walls partially across the
floor, and directly opposite to each other. The whole floor
of the chamber, in all the compartments, was strewed with
bones of animals, and on the floor, and imbedded in it, were
the remains of at least ten human skeletons, unburnt The
animal bones were those of the common domestic animals,
including goats and birds, but with a remarkable abundance
of red-deer remains — no fewer than eleven pail's of antlers
having been enumerated, or something like a head of stag's
horns for each person interred.

Another cairn in the island of Burray, which was about
60 feet in length, had crescentic endings, with a facing wall
like those of the horned cairns of Caithness. It contained
a central chamber, about 1 2 feet in length and 8 feet wide,
divided into three compartments by upright flagstones
projecting from the side walls across the floor, opposite to
each other, leaving a space of about 2 feet between their
edges for a passage up the centre of the chamber. The
entrance passage, leading from the outside of the cairn to
the chamber, had been destroyed, and only a few feet of the
height of the chamber walls remained, la-mains of a large
number of human skeletons, unburnt, were found in and
upon the floor of the chamber. No fewer than ten human
skulls were found in the first compartment, near the opening

1 A ground-plan of the chamber of this cairn is given by Mr. George
Petrie in the Proc. Soc. Antvj. Scot., vol. ii plate 3.

CHAMBERED CAIIINS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

291

into the entrance passage. Eemains of the common domestic
animals were also found in abundance, no fewer than seven
skulls of dogs having been identified among them.

A cairn at Bookan (Fig. 272), in the parish of Sand wick,
and not far from Stennis, which was explored by Mr. Farrer
in 1861, exhibits features in the arrangement of the
chamber, which form a connecting link between the triply
divided chamber of the Caithness group and the chamber

Fig. 272. — Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Bookan,
near Stennis, Orkney.

surrounded by side cells, which is the prevailing variety in
Orkney. The cairn was about 44 feet in diameter, and
about 6 feet high, the upper part having been removed at
some time previous to its examination. Eleven feet within
the outer edge of the base the original bounding wall or
facing of the cairn, which defined its circular outline, was

292 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

found entire in its lower courses to the height of a foot or
more. The passage, which was 21 inches in width, and
•Oiicely more in height at the entrance, led to a chamber
almost square in form, with walls built in the usual manner,
but witli flagstones projecting into the area of the floor from
all its sides, and other flagstones set at right angles to them.
The area of the floor was thus subdivided into a central
chamber, into which the passage led, surrounded by other
cells separated from it by flagstones on edge. In the
central chamber a flint lance or spear-head, and some frag-
ments of clay urns, were found, but no human remains. In
the surrounding compartments the remains of a number of
human skeletons were found.

At Unstan, near the Bridge of Waith, Stennis, Orkney,
a chambered cairn of very interesting character was recently
excavated by Mr. R S. Clouston. The cairn was situated
on a little promontory projecting into the lake, and the part
of the promontory on which it was situated was cut off
from the land by a ditch. The extreme diameter of the
mound or cairn was upwards of 50 feet, but within the
irregular circumference of its base the usual double retain-
ing wall was found, defining the original outline of an
approximately circular construction 40 feet in diameter.
The double external wall was traced for some distance on the
north side of the cairn, the interval between the outer and
inner walls being about 3 feet. On the south-east side of the
cairn (Fig. 273) the opening of the passage was found. The
passage, which was about 2 feet wide and 1 4 feet in length, led
into an elongated chamber about 21 feet in length by 6| feet
in extreme width, narrowing to about 4 feet at the one end
and 5 feet at the other. The chamber was divided into
five compartments, by slabs placed on edge projecting from
the side walls opposite each other, precisely in the same
manner as in the Caithness cairns. The two end compart-

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF AHGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

293

ments had each a third slab placed across the opening
between the projecting slabs like a door, and the compart-
ment at the south end had also a slab dividing it into two
subdivisions longitudinally. From the centre compartment

Fi;?. 273.— Ground-plan of Chambered Cairn at Unstan, Orkney
(40 feet in diameter).

of the chamber a small side chamber opened on the west
side, about 7 feet long by 3 feet wide. The two end com-
partments and the small side chamber were partially paved
with rough flags. The sepulchral deposits in this chambered
cairn present a marked resemblance to those found in the
chambered cairns of Caithness and Argyll. In the floor of
the chamber and the inner part of the passage there was
found a large quantity of unburnt bones, human and animal.
There was also evidence of cremation in the presence of

294

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

burnt bones and charcoal. The fragments of pottery found
among the bones, or imbedded in the floor of the chamber and
passage, were exceedingly numerous, and must have repre-
sented about thirty different urns. So far as they have been
found capable of reconstruction, these urns are, for the most
part, large, shallow, round-bottomed vessels, with more or less
vertical rims, as shown in Fig. 274. This urn is 14 inches in

Figs. 274, 275.— Urns from the Chambered Cairn of Uustan, Orkney
(14 and 13 J inches in diameter).

diameter, and 5 inches deep in the centre. It is well
modelled and neatly made, — almost as evenly turned as if it
had been thrown on the wheel. The paste of which it is
composed is dark coloured, hard baked, and free from
admixture of stones. The rounded under part of the vessel
is thin, the upright rim slightly thicker, and the lip, which
is bevelled from the inside outwards, expands to £ inch in
thickness. There is no ornament on any portion of the

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

295

vessel except the vertical rim, which is 2| inches high, and
scored obliquely to right or to left in alternate triangular
spaces. Another urn (Fig. 275), almost exactly similar in
form and character, is 13| inches diameter, and 4| inches
deep in the centre. It is not circular, but slightly oval, and
the vertical rim, which is only 2 inches high, has its lip
almost flat and f inch in thickness. The ornamentation on
the vertical rim of this vessel differs from that of the first
urn only in the scorings of each alternate triangular space
being parallel to the lip of the vessel, while the others are
placed obliquely to left. A third urn of the same character
(Fig. 276) is llf inches diameter, and 4£ inches deep in the

Figs. 276, 277. — Urns from the Chambered Cairn of Unstan, Orkney
(11 J and 9$ inches in diameter).

centre, the lip flat, and f inch in thickness, the vertical riui
2| inches high, ornamented like the first, except that it has
two horizontal lines carried round under the brim. A fourth
urn of the same character, but smaller (Fig. 277), measures
9 1 inches diameter, and 3£ inches deep in the centre, the lip
flat, and £ inch in thickness, the vertical rim l£ inch high

29G

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

and ornamented as the first, but with triangular spaces of
longer base. The rims of two other urns, of 10J and 10£
inches diameter, are extremely thin, and both ornamented
with triangular spaces similar to the second. A distinct
variety of this form, with the rim slanting outwards, is
indicated by several fragments with somewhat similar
ornamentation. The largest vessel (Fig. 278) is of a reddish

Fig. 278. — Urn from the Chambered Cairn of Unstan, Orkney
(15£ inches in diameter).

paste, softer and more porous, and thicker in the body. It
measures 15 £ inches in diameter, and 5£ inches in depth in
the centre, and has a slightly curved rim under a broad flat
lip IY inch across. The rim is slightly ornamented with
scorings of oblique lines to right and left. A perfectly plain

Fig. 279.— Urn from the Chambered Cairn of Unstan, Orkney
(9 inches in diameter).

vessel of oval shape (Fig. 279) measures 9 inches in its
greatest diameter across the mouth, and 4 inches deep, the

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 297

sides bulging considerably, and then contracting to the
rounded bottom. Another form of plain, unornamented
urn, indicated by several fragments, seems to have had
deep and almost straight sides and a rounded bottom.
There appear to have been tall, can-shaped vessels, but as
none show more than a small portion of one side, with an
indication of curvature at the bottom, their precise form and
proportions have not been ascertained. One flat bottom
only was found, about 3| inches diameter, but the upper
part of the vessel has not been recovered. The prevailing
type is therefore that of a round-bottomed vessel of a hard
dark-coloured paste, with vertical brim, and thick flat or
bevelled lip, and this is precisely the type which is
characteristic of the chambered cairns of Argyll. The
ornamentation in the Unstan pottery has more similarity
to the style of the Bronze Age, but the cairn itself is
chambered, and therefore of Stone Age type. The imple-
ments and weapons that were found in association with its
sepulchral deposits were all of flint, and their calcined
condition indicates that they must have passed through the
fire. They form a very interesting and suggestive group.
There are four leaf -shaped arrow-heads (two of which are
shown in Fig. 280), and one with barbs and stem. The leaf-
shaped arrow-heads are of large size, and well made, the
shape inclining to the elongated lozenge with curvilinear
butt. The fifth arrow-head, which is barbed, is of smaller
size, and has suffered damage, but not to such an extent as
to obliterate its distinctive form. There was also found
a finely finished scraper (Fig. 281) of a form which is not at
all common in Scotland, with both sides as well as the front
bevelled to a cutting or scraping edge ; and one of those rare
implements of flint (Fig. 282), an elongated knife, with the
edge ground smooth instead of being merely chipped. Such
<n-ound-ed"ed knives have been found in other chambered

L".'S

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

cairns in the north of Scotland, and the occurrence of this
one in the Unstan cairn adds another link to the chain of

Fig. 380.— Flint Arrow-heads from the Chambered Cairn of Unstan, Orkney
(actual size).

evidence which connects it and them with the sepulchral
usages of the Age of Stone. Another flint tool found in the

Figs. 281, 282.- Scraper and Knife of Flint from the Chambered Cairn of Unstan,
Orkney (actual size).

chamber of this cairn is of exceptional interest, inasmuch as
it is the first recorded instance of its occurrence in connection
with sepulture in Scotland. The recorded instances of its

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC.

299

occurrence are exceedingly few, and it has long been
represented in the Museum by a single specimen. The
present example (Fig. 283), from the chamber of the Unstan
cairn, is formed of a long ridged flake, with the crown of the
ridge split off, and greatly worn
by use at both extremities.
It belongs to the class of im-
plements styled by Mr. Evans
" fabricators," or flaking tools,
and its use is presumed to
have been that of a tool em-
ployed in the fabrication of
arrow-heads and other imple-
ments of flint.

Taking this Orkney group
of chambered cairns as a
whole, we find it presenting
the same essential character-
istics as are exhibited by the
groups which have been de-
scribed on the mainland of
Scotland. There is consider-
able variation in the arrange-
ment of the chambers, and a
strongly marked tendency to
a grouping of smaller cells
round the main chamber,
which may be regarded as a

local characteristic peculiar to the Orkney Islands. But with
this local peculiarity there are associated instances of the
tripartite chamber so characteristic of the northern mainland
area, and in several cases the still more characteristic features
of the bounding wall and curved extremities are presented.

Comparing the general features of all the groups we have

Fig. 283.— Implement of Flint
from Chambered Cairn at
Unstan, Orkney (actual
size).

300 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

now examined, we find that while the typical relationship
is abundantly obvious, there is also obvious a strong local
differentiation in each of the groups, which imparts to it
a special character of its own. But the general features of
the burial deposits are essentially the same in all the groups.
The deposition of many successive interments in one chamber,
the commixture of the bones of animals, — the ox, sheep, deer,
and dog, the horse and swine, — with those of the human
beings, the presence of burnt and unburnt interments in the
same chamber, the general prevalence of the round-bottomed
form of urn, and the total absence of instruments of metal
from the groups of grave-goods deposited with the dead, are
features common to them all, irrespective of the external
form of the cairn in which the chamber is contained.

Another group of cairn structures of very remarkable
character is situated in the little plain of Clava, in Strath-
nairn, within a few miles of Inverness. It seems to have
consisted originally of seven or eight cairns, but of these
only two are now sufficiently entire to show the details of
their structure. The eastmost cairn of the group (Fig. 284)
was opened by Miss Campbell of Kilravock many years ago.
It is approximately circular on the ground-plan, and measures
about 50 feet in diameter, and 10 feet high. Its basal out-
line is defined by a circle of large blocks laid close together.
The opening of the passage is towards the west side of the
cairn. The passage, which is about 18 feet in length and
2 feet wide, gives access to a circular chamber about 1 3 feet
in diameter. The interior walls of the chamber are built
of large blocks at the base, and smaller stones higher up.
The roofs of both chamber and passage are gone, but
the walls of the chamber exhibit the signs of converg-
ence common to all structures of the kind. When the
chamber was cleared out by Miss Campbell, the floor was
found to be composed of a thick layer of earthy clay, in

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 301

which were burnt bones and the fragments of urns.1 Judg-
ing from the description of these urns, they seem to have

Fig. 284. — View of Chambered Cairn at Clava, Strathnairn, with its

surrounding Stone Circle.
(From a Drawing by Rev. Dr. J. Joass.)

differed from those found in the chambered cairns of
Caithness and Argyll. They are of larger size, thicker,
and more rudely made, of coarser paste, and less carefully
fired. In form and character they closely resemble the
cinerary urns found in the circles and cemeteries of the
Bronze Age, as described in the previous Lectures. And,
in point of fact, this cairn stands within a stone circle, of
which seven stones still remain in position.

The same peculiarity of a circle of erect stones, placed
at some distance from each other, and from the external
outline of the base of the cairn, is also recorded in connec-
tion with other examples in the Clava group. In the
general description of them by the Messrs. Anderson of
Inverness, written when they were not so dilapidated as
they now are, it is stated that they have each a ring of large
stones hemming in and supporting their bases; while

1 Two of these vessels were partially reconstructed, and have been
engraved by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder in his book on TJie Moray Floods.

302 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

another circle of large masses of sandstone, ten or twelve
stones in each circle, at the distance of several paces from
the inner structure, is attached to each cairn.1

In the Clava group of chambered cairns we have there-
fore another local differentiation of the general type. Like
all the others, they possess a definite external outline and a
regularly constructed interior chamber and passage, but,
unlike any of the others, there is no subdivision of the
internal chamber, and they present an external feature
which is not present among the groups of similar structures
peculiar to Orkney, Caithness, and Argyll, viz., the addition
of a ring of standing stones erected outside the periphery of
the cairn. We have thus again reached a point in the
investigation at which we find the stone circle and the
chambered cairn united as a composite structure. But here
the ring of standing stones is obviously an adjunct to the
cairn which contains the burials within its chamber. In
other words, it is the chamber which is the central idea and
the essential object of the composite construction. I have
already shown that when the stone circle appears alone, its
included burials are characterised by their association with
implements of bronze, while, on the other hand, the chambered
cairns, whether possessing or not possessing an encircling
stone-setting, have yielded only weapons and implements
of stone. Thus, by the testimony of their included relics,
which is the only evidence relevant to the determination of
the sequence of the burials, it is established that the circles
are the successors and not the predecessors of the chambered
cairns, and therefore the composite structures which have
the circle for an adjunct to the cairn must take their place
in the series between the unencircled cairns and the un-

1 Accurate ground-plans of these cairns have now been published in
a very interesting paper on the Stone Circles of Strathnairn by Mr. J.
Fraser, C.E., Inverness, in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., roL xviii. p. 328.

CHAMBERED CAIRNS OF ARGYLL, ORKNEY, ETC. 303

cairned circles. The former precede the Bronze Age, the
latter belong to it

Reviewing the whole of the special features and charac-
teristics which have now been detailed in connection with
these chambered cairns, in this and the preceding Lecture, it
is clear that, however much they may differ from each other
in the minor details of external form, or internal arrange-
ment they are nevertheless of one structural type, dis-
tinguished by two essential characteristics : — (1) by the
presence of an internal chamber accessible by a passage ;
and (2) by the existence of a definite external outline on
the ground-plan, structurally defined by a single, or more
usually by a double, retaining wall. When we call them
" cairns " we merely describe their actual aspect at the
present day, as the greatly dilapidated ruins of construc-
tions that were essentially structural in conception and
character. The system of their design was a system which
produced a building with an outside and an inside, a floor
and a roof, external and internal doorways, partitions, and
passages. The system of burial for which they were con-
structed was a system by which the dead were usually
provided with grave-goods corresponding to their station or
condition in life, and from this it resulted not only that the
furnishings of the houses of the dead bore some resemblance
to those of the dwellings of the living, but also that these
sepulchral constructions were necessarily more or less of the
nature of chambers to be thus furnished. Their contents
disclose to a certain extent the life and culture of the people.
They possessed the same domestic animals we still possess,
and kept dogs and hunted the red-deer. Their common
weapons were bows with flint-pointed arrows, and battle-
axes of polished stone. They made pottery of a dark
coloured, thin, and hard-baked paste. The vessels, though
not thrown on the wheel, were finely shaped, wide-mouthed,

304 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

round-bottomed, and thick-lipped, the lip often bevelled
outwardly and recurving over the vertical rim, which was
usually highly ornamented. Their system of ornament was
simple, consisting of shallow flutings, or scorings in straight
lines arranged in groups contrasting as to their direction, or
markings with the finger-nail.

It is difficult indeed, from data so obviously defective,
and records of observations so manifestly incomplete, to
form any adequate conception of the conditions of the life
and the relative quality of the culture thus dimly disclosed.
But it is easy to evade the difficulty of dealing scientifically
with conditions of human existence which are wholly
unfamiliar to our experience, by characterising them as
brutish and barbarous, uncultured and uncivilised ; and this
has always been the attitude of the more highly cultured
towards the less highly cultured races, whether of ancient
or of modern times. The full significance of all the indica-
tions of the nature of that life and the quality of that
culture with which we have now been dealing, will not be
completely disclosed (so far as it is at present apprehensible)
until we have examined the varied series of the relics of its
industrial arts that have been found unassociated with
burials — and these will form the subject of the next and
concluding Lecture, But with regard to these chambered
sepulchres, while it is clear that a just conception of their
character and significance is only to be obtained by a long-
sustained series of laborious and systematic investigations,
it is equally apparent that the enormous magnitude of these
peculiar structures is fitted to convey an instantaneous
impression of energy and power, while the intention, so
obvious in their construction as " the houses of the dead,"
instinctively challenges our respect for their builders.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 305

LECTURE VI.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

IN the two previous Lectures I have dealt with the
sepulchral structures of the Age of Stone in Scotland. As
I have before had occasion to remark of the Age of Bronze,
I have now to repeat with respect to the Age of Stone, that
there is no vestige of a dwelling or a defensive construction
known in Scotland which can be proved by evidence to have
been the work of the men of the Stone Period. The remain-
ing materials from which conclusions may be drawn with
regard to the culture and civilisation of that period con-
sist of the arms, implements, and ornaments of the people,
which have been recovered from the soil, though not as-
sociated with the burial of the dead. It has already been
shown by the examination of the circumstances of the oc-
currence of the industrial products of the Age of Bronze,
that the number of these products which have been found in
association with burials is small in comparison with the
number that have been discovered having no connection
with sepulture. But it is perhaps more strikingly true of
the industrial products of the Age of Stone, that it is only
in very few and rarely occurring instances that they have
been found associated with burials in Scotland. By far the
larger number have been found casually, in ploughing, in
20

306 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

draining or other excavations, in peat mosses, in the beds of
rivers and the margins of lochs, or in sandy wastes by the
goa film i r, where the blowing of the sanS lays bare at times,
in a settled stratum on the harder subsoil, an accumulation
of all the objects that have been dropped upon its surface in
all the ages during which it has been traversed by man.

But it by no means follows that all the stone implements
and weapons which are thus casually found in the soil are
assignable to the Age of Stone. We have already seen that
certain types of stone implements and weapons are found in
Bronze Age graves, thus indicating the survival of these
varieties into the Age of Bronze, while there are other types
which we know from similar evidences of association to be
even assignable to the Age of Iron. In fact it is difficult, if
it be not impossible, in the present state of our knowledge,
to point to a single form of stone implement or weapon
commonly found in Scotland, which can be proved by
evidence to be exclusively a Stone Age type. We have seen
that there is a Stone Age type of sepulchral cairn, and a
Stone Age type of sepulchral urn, which have not been found
in any one instance associated with the use of Bronze ; but
the case is altogether different with the types of weapons
and implements of stone, which, though they may have
originated in the Age of Stone, appear to have continued in
use after the introduction of bronze, and probably till
similar tools and weapons of metal became abundantly and
readily obtainable.

In dealing with the aggregate collection of stone imple-
ments and weapons that have been casually found in the
soil of Scotland, the most obvious fact that presents itself to
the observer is that they separate themselves into groups or
classes distinguishable from each other by certain charac-
teristics of form which obviously have relation to the several
purposes for which the units of each group were respectively

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 307

designed. Examining the several groups or classes with
relation to their purposes, we classify them according to their
obvious uses as axes, spear and arrow heads, knives, saws,
borers, and scrapers.

The axes are of two varieties, perforate and imperforate.
The group of perforated axes is much less numerous than
those that are unperforated. They are characterised by a
greater variety of form, and are frequently ornamented,
while the others are always plain. They are very rarely
made of flint, but often of granite, gneiss, diorite, porphyry,
basalt, and indurated sandstone. They vary greatly in size ;
and, while they are all characterised by the presence of the
shaft-hole, they are divisible into three varieties, viz. (1)
having an edge at both ends; (2) having an edge at one
end only ; (3) having both ends blunt or rounded.

The variety of perforated stone axe having an edge at
both ends is the rarest of the three typical forms. An
example has already been instanced as having been found in
a Bronze Age grave in the stone circle at Crichie.1 It is
therefore a form which survived into the Bronze Age.
Another one, of the same form as that found at Crichie,
was found in a barrow at Whitehall, in the island of Stron-
say, Orkney. It differs from the Crichie specimen in being
unornamented, but as it presents the peculiarity of being
unfinished, in so far as the perforation for the handle has not
been made, it may not have been intended to be destitute of
ornament in its finished condition. A third axe-head of
this form (Fig. 185), also in process of manufacture, being
still unperforated, and only roughly blocked to shape, was
found in the island of Coll. It is somewhat larger in size,
being 4j inches in length. In its unfinished condition its
ends are so rounded that there is no indication of an intention
to bring either of them to an edge. But it must be borne

1 See Fig. 123, at p. 106.

308

SCOTLAND IN I'AGAN TIMES.

in mind that these stone battle-axes were not meant to cut.
Their edges are never sharp, and they are thus distinctly

Fig. 285. — Stone Axe or Hammer found in Coll (4J inches in length).

separated by this special characteristic, as well as by their
finer features of form and ornamentation, from the imperforate
axes that were used as tools. In the cases which have been
described, the edges of the weapon lie in the direction of the
shaft-hole, but there are also examples in which the direction
of the edges is at right angles to the shaft-hole. A small axe
of this description, found in a barrow in Shetland (Fig. 286),
is of a finely mottled gneissose stone, beautifully polished,
and having the shaft-hole drilled through with parallel sides.
It measures 4 inches in length by 1 £ inch in width, and in
the cross-section is a slightly flattened oval Another of the
same form, from Scarpiegarth, also in Shetland, measures
4} inches in length] and 2 inches in greatest width, having

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

309

a shaft-hole | inch in diameter, the sides of which are
quite parallel.

A finely made specimen,
from Portpatrick in Wigtown-
shire (Fig. 287), which has the
edges in the same direction as
the shaft-hole, is oval in shape,
tapering to both ends, the flat
faces slightly hollowed towards
the centre, and the perforation
for the handle nearly in the mid-
dle of its length. It measures
4f inches in length, 2j inches
in greatest breadth, and 1£ inch
in thickness at the shaft-
hole, which is If inch wide,
narrowing to | inch in the
middle, as shown in the section.

The second variety, which
has the edge only at one end of the weapon, is much more
common. A fine example (Fig.
288), found at Chapelton, near
Ardrossan, Ayrshire, is of granite,
4J inches in length, and 2| inches
in greatest width. It narrows to
1| inch at the shaft-hole, which is
1 inch in diameter, and has been
bored from both sides, as is ap-
parent from the fact that the
borings have not met accurately
in the middle of thickness of the
weapon. An ornamental band of
three incised lines borders the con-
cave edges pierced by the shaft-hole, and the shorter end of

Fig. 286. — Stone Axe found in a
Barrow in Shetland (4 inches
in length).

Fig. 287.— Stone Axe found
near Portpatrick, Wig-
townshire (4f inches in
length).

310

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN T1MI>

the instrument is finished like a hammer with a rounded
face J inch in diameter. This axe-head was found with a
cremated interment enclosed in an urn, which was turned
up by the plough. Another axe- head, of greenstone
(Fig. 289), nearly similar in form, but slightly larger, was

Fig. 288. — Stone Axe found at Chapel ton, Ayrshire
(4J inches in length).

also turned up by the plough at Moutfode, near Ardrossau.
It measures 5 inches in length by 3 inches in greatest width,
having a shaft-hole 1 inch in diameter. It is ornamented by
a border of two incised lines round the concave edges
pierced by the shaft-hole, and has a slightly projecting knob

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

311

in the centre of the convexity of either side. A larger
specimen (Fig. 290), still of the same form, but without the
incised ornamentation, was found at Claycrop, in the parish
of Kirkinner, Wigtownshire. It measures 6£ inches in length

Fig. 289.— Stone Axe found at Montfode, Ayrshire
(5 inches in length).

by 3 1 inches in greatest width and 2f inches in greatest
thickness. As in the previous examples, the sides are con-
siderably hollowed to shorten the bore for the shaft-hole.
The perforation, which is 1^ inch in diameter, is thus only

3 1 2 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

2 inches in length. It has been bored as usual from lx>th
sides, and, as seen in the section, the borings diminish in width
toward their junction, which is not central. A variety of

Fig. 290.— Stone Axe found at Claycrop, Wigtownshire
(G\ inches in length).

this form, which is more wedge-shaped and less distinctly
hammer-like at the blunt end, is represented by an example
in granite (Fig. 291), 5£ inches in length, by 2 inches in
greatest width, which was dredged up from the bed of the

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

313

river Tay at Ballinbriech, near Newburgh. The perforation
for the shaft is 1 inch in diameter at the external openings,

Fig. 291. — Stone Axe found in the Tay, near Newburgh
(5^ inches in length).

and the borings from both sides have met pretty fairly near
the centre of the thickness of the implement. Another
variety, presenting almost the same side view as the Ballin-

314

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

briech specimen, but more rounded in the butt, is represented
by an example (Fig. 292) from Fardenreoch, in the parish of
Colmonell, Ayrshire. It is almost the same size, 5J inches
in length, and 2£ inches across the cutting face, but the
woodcut is drawn to a smaller scale. The shaft-hole is

Pig. 292. — Stone Axe found at Fardenreoch, Ayrshire
(5$ inches in length).

1 inch in width at the external openings, narrowing slightly
in the middle, as shown in the section. The material is dia-
base, with a mixture of pyrites of iron. It is supposed to
have been washed out of a cairn of stones in which an un-
burnt burial was subsequently found.1 A still rarer form is

"Stone Implements of Ayrshire," by Dr. James Macdonald, in the

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

315

modelled almost on the lines of a modern hammer. An
example of this form in whinstone (Fig. 293), which possesses

Fig. 293. — Stone Axe found near Duns Castle
(8 inches in length).

the peculiarity of an oval shaft-hole, was found in trenching
ground in the neighbourhood of Duns Castle. It measures
8 inches in length and 2| inches in greatest thickness.
An equally finely made implement (Fig. 294), dredged from
the Tay, near Mugdrum Island, is less distinctly hammer-like
at the butt-end, and has the usual circular shaft-hole. It
is of a dark-coloured whinstone, 6£ inches in length, by

Collections of the Ayr and Wigtownshire Archceological Association,
vol. iii. p. 78.

316

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 294.— Stone Axe found
in the Tay, near Newburgh
(Oj inches in length).

2 inches wide, and 1£ inch thick, the perforation for the
handle being 1 inch in diameter.

A specimen of much larger size
(Fig. 295), found in the Loch of
Friars Carse, Dumfriesshire, is a
typical example of a variety of
stone axe or hammer — wedge-
shaped below the shaft-hole, trun-
cated above it, — very common in
the southern districts of the country.
Indeed, one of the special points
of interest connected with it is the
suggestion, derived from a com-
parison of the localities in which
the specimens occur, that the form
may be a southern one. But until
we have succeeded in obtaining

an exhaustive collection for the whole of Scotland, any
attempt to define the geographical areas of the several
forms is futile. We know at present that there are
many specimens from that part of Scotland lying south
of the Tay, and most of these from the region south of the
Forth, but we do not know what would be the pre-
dominant form among an equal number of specimens of
perforated axes from the region north of the Tay, because
there is no fairly representative collection of them. Many
of these southern specimens are of great size, usually from
1\ to 10 or 11 inches in length, and of proportionate width
and thickness. They are so heavy that they could only have
been wielded with difficulty as weapons. Though some of
them, like the example (Fig. 296) found at Prieston, in the
parish of Colmonell, Ayrshire,1 exhibit a kind of ornamen-

1 Collections of Ayr and Wigtoicnsltire Archceolofjical Association,
vol. ii. p. 4.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 317

Fig. 295.— Stone Axe found in the Loch of Friars Carse
(10 inches in length).

Fig. 296. —Stone Axe found at Prieston, Ayrshire
(10i inches in length).

31 S

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TI.MKS.

tation, their general rudeness, and the want of symmetry by
which they are sometimes characterised, indicate rather a
utilitarian purpose than a warlike character. Their common
form is exhibited in that of the example from Torhouskie,
in the parish of Wigtown (Fig. 297), which is here engraved
to a smaller scale than several of the previous examples. It
measures 9£ inches in length, 4 inches in width at the
widest part, and 2£ inches in thickness. The material is a

Fig. 297.— Stone Axe found at Tor-
houskie (9$ inches in length).

Fig. 298. — Stone Axe from Macher-
more (6.J inches in length).

greyish close-grained sandstone. Another example (Fig. 298),
from Machermore, Old Luce, Wigtownshire, exhibits the want
of symmetry in form which sometimes characterises this
variety of implement. It is of reddish-grey sandstone,
6£ inches in length, 3§ inches wide in the widest part, and
3| inches in thickness, — the thickness, as in most of these
implements, being the same throughout. The shaft-hole is
larger than usual, being 2 inches in diameter externally,
but narrowing to If inch at the middle, having been bored

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

319

as usual from the two opposite sides of the implement. A
still ruder though more symmetrical example (Fig. 299)
comes from Portpatrick,
also in Wigtownshire. It
is a flattish, oval, and

> ' • /fiRff " '* "

water-rolled stone of ***

greyish greenstone, with
scarcely any sign of
artificial shaping. It mea-
sures 6| inches in length,
3| inches in breadth,
and 3 inches in thickness.
The perforation for the
handle is 2 inches dia-
meter at the surface, but

narrowing in the middle of the thickness of the imple-
ment to 1^ inch diameter. One somewhat triangular in
shape (Fig. 300), from Kirkcowan, in Wigtownshire, is

Fig. 299.— Stone Axe found near Port-
patrick (6| inches in length).

Fig. 300.— Stone Axe from Kirkcowan Fig. 301.— Stone Axe from Balma-
(3| inches in length). clellan (3J inches in length).

3 1 inches in length by 3^ inches in greatest breadth, and
l£ inch in thickness ; the thickness being nearly equal
throughout. The shaft-hole, which is nearly in the centre

520

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

of the implement, is Ij inch diameter at the surface,
narrowing to £ inch at the centre. One more distinctly
triangular in shape, from Balmaclellan (Fig. 301), has the
shaft-hole in the centre. It measures 3£ inches of a side,
and 1£ inch in thickness, the shaft-hole being l£ inch
diameter at the surface, and narrowing to 1 inch at the
centre.

The third variety of these perforated implements, hammer-
shaped at both ends, is simply a war-hammer. A specimen
of granite, narrower at one end than the other, has already
been described as found in the chamber of the horned cairn
at Ormiegill, Ulbster.1 One somewhat larger, and with both
ends equal (Fig. 302), was found with a cremated burial,

Pig. 302. — Stone Hammer found at Cleughhead (3} inches in length).

enclosed in a cist, on the farm of Cleughhead, Glenbervie, in
Kincardineshire. It is also of a granitic stone, 3£ inches in
length, 2^ inches in width, and If inch in thickness. The
form is a flattened oval, narrowing slightly in the middle so

1 See the description and figure at p. 246.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 321

as to diminish the space to be perforated. The perforation
for the shaft-hole is £ inch in diameter, and of nearly equal
width throughout. A very fine example of this variety
(Fig. 303), though of a different shape, comes from Urquhart,

Fig. 303. — Stone Hammer found in Urquhart, Elginshire (actual size).

in Elginshire. It is of whitish flint, finely polished, and has
been intended to be finished in a highly ornamental manner,
by working a lozenge-shaped pattern in regularly formed and
contiguous facets, all over the surface. The pattern has
been finished over the small end of the hammer, and blocked
in down the sides, but the work had not proceeded further.
Its appearance when finished is shown by another hammer
(Fig. 304), of precisely the same form and material, orna-
mented with the same pattern, which was found at Mays-
more, near Corwen, in North Wales, and is now in the
National Museum.1 It is truly a beautiful piece of work,

1 This beautiful specimen was presented by Rev. Edward Lowry Barn-
well, Melksham, Wilts, F.S.A. Scot.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM I >.

executed with infinite labour and surprising skill. The
design of the ornament is peculiar, and admirably carried

Fig. 304.— Stone Hammer found near Conven, Merionethshire
(actual size).

out, and the labour implied in its execution by mere
dexterity of handicraft is wellnigh incredible. There are
upon its surface upwards of two hundred separate spaces, each
hollowed out to a uniform depth in the centre, and rising
towards the edges so regularly as to preserve the lines of
direction of the ridges with perfect accuracy and precision.
The stone is so hard that steel will not scratch it, and yet
the finish of all the details of the ornament and the polish
of their surface are perfect. Looking at the symmetry and
beauty of its form, the design of its ornament, and the per-
fection of its finish, in the light of the fact that the processes
by which these results have been obtained (without the aid
of machinery) are matters of speculation and controversy

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

323

among the experts of the present day, it is impossible to
doubt that a work like this— irrespective of the time and
manner of its production, and apart from all questions of
the capacity and culture of its producer — must of necessity
take its place among the products of skill and taste.

In dealing with the imperforate axes of stone, I shall
notice first a few instances in which they have been found
in groups of greater or less number, in actual association
with each other or with articles of a different character.

At Campbeltown, in Argyllshire, at some time previous to
1864, a group of two stone axes (Figs. 305, 306) was found

Figs. 305, 306. —Stone Axes found at Campbeltown (7 inches and
5^ inches in length).

associated with two stone moulds for casting spear-heads of
bronze.1 The axe-heads are finely made, and carefully
finished, of a dark close-grained clay ironstone. They are
similar in form, oval in section in the middle of their length,

1 See the description of the moulds in Lecture in., p. 186, and Proc.
tioc. Antiq. Scot., vol. vi. p. 48.

324

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMK-.

sharpened to a rounded cutting edge, and tapering to a
bluntly rounded or truncated butt. They differ in size, the
larger of the two being 7 inches in length, by 3 inches across
the cutting face, and the smaller 5£ by 2| inches. The
circumstances of their association show that they belonged
to a time when the most advanced forms of the Bronze Age
had come into use, though the forms of the Stone Age had
not been entirely disused.

A group of two stone axes (one of which is shown in
Fig. 307) was found together in Aberdeenshire,1 the

locality and the date being un-
fortunately unknown. They are
finely-finished implements, made
of a hard close-grained felstone.
They are nearly of the same
form as the two that have been
previously described, but instead
of being truncated at the butt,
they taper to a point. They
are remarkable for their close
similarity to each other in
every respect, there being no
two stone implements known
which are more nearly identical
in material and size, in form and finish.

At Dramour, on a spur of Mount Blair, in Glenshee, For-
farshire, a group of two stone axes was found in 1870, in a
mossy hollow, at a depth of about five feet under the surface.
They are of large size, the larger of the two being 15i inches
in length, by 3f inches across the cutting face, and the
smaller (Fig. 308) measuring 13 by 3 inches. It shows the
peculiarity of a slight expansion at the sides of the butt,
doubtless intended for ornament The material of both is

1 Proc. Sor. Antiq. Scot., vol. xii. p. 207.

Fig. 307. —Stone Axe, one of a
pair, found in Aberdeenshire
(9 inches in length).

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

325

a hard close-grained claystone, and the surface is carefully
smoothed. They differ in form from those last described,
inasmuch as they do not taper
conically to the butt, and the
edges are ground flat longi-
tudinally, so that the cross-
section in the middle of their
length is a pointed oval with
its pointed ends taken squarely
off. They taper somewhat to-
wards the butt, and the butt
end is of the same form as the
cutting end, though not sharp-
ened to a cutting edge.

In the parish of Daviot,
Inverness-shire, sometime before
1865, a group of three stone
axes was found, with an oblong
pestle-shaped implement, in a cairn of stones. There is no
evidence that these implements, though found in a cairn,
were in any way associated with traces of burial. This may
of course be due to the imperfection of the record, but we
are not entitled to assume an association with burial in the
absence of positive evidence, and in face of the fact that at
the present moment there is no well-authenticated instance
of a stone axe of this type having been found with a burial
in Scotland. The two largest of these axes were placed in
the National Museum, with the pestle-shaped implement.1
The larger of the two (Fig. 309) is 12i inches in length,
and 4 inches across the cutting edge. It tapers slightly to
the butt, which is of the same form as the cutting edge, and

1 The third axe may be one in the collection of Mr. John Evans, which
came from Daviot. — Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, pp. 121,
135.

Fig. 308. — Stone Axe found at
Drumour (13 inches in length).

320

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 309.— Stone Axe, one of three found together at Daviot,
Inverness-shire (12J inches in length).

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

327

almost equally sharp, the section across the middle of the
implement being an elongated oval. The smaller of the two
axes measures 91 inches in length, and 2± inches across the
cutting edge, is oval in the cross-section in the middle of its
length, and tapers to a conically pointed butt.

At Tingwall in Shetland a group of three stone axes of
dark porphyritic stone were recently discovered lying together
in the soil. The smallest of the three (Fig. 310), which is

Fig. 310. — Stone Axe, one of three found together at Tingwall,
Shetland (6£ inches in length).

flatter on one side than the other, and curved longitudinally
so as to be somewhat adze-shaped, measures 6| inches in
length, by 2 inches in breadth, tapering to about If inch
at the butt, which is bluntly rounded. The second (Fig. 311)
is 9 inches in length, by 3f inches across the slightly ex-

328 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

ponded cutting face, oval in the cross-section, and tapering
gradually to a conically pointed butt. The third (Fig. 312),
which is the largest, is 10.V inches in length, by 2£ inches

Fip. 311. — Stone Axe, one of three found together at Tiiigwall.
Shetland (9 inches in length).

across the cutting face, oval in the cross-section in the
middle of its length, and tapering gradually to a roundly
pointed butt.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

329

A group of two very beautifully made and finely polished
axes of grey flint (Figs. 313, 314) was found in digging a

Fig. 312. — Stone Axe, one of three found together at Tingwall,
Shetland (10^ inches in length).

drain near Fochabers. They are similar in form, sharp at
both ends, and as finely finished and highly polished as if

330

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKs.

they had been the work of a modern lapidary, with all the
appliances which science has placed at his command. It is

Fig. 813. — Finely polished Axe of White Flint, found near Fochabers
(7) inches in length).

a noticeable characteristic of the more finely finished and
highly polished axes that they rarely show any traces of the
wear and tear of common use. Many of the less carefully
finished implements appear to have been frequently re-
sharpened ; the edge is often worn in an oblique direction to
the axis of the implement, as it would be by long-continued
use. But the finer specimens, for the most part, appear as if
they were newly from the maker's hands after he had given

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

331

them their final polish, and was satisfied that he could do
nothing more to improve their appearance. It seems to be

Fig. 314.— Finely polished Axe of White Flint, found near Fochabers
(10 inches in length).

a reasonable deduction from this constancy of the perfection
of form and finish in these finer pieces of Stone Age handi-

332 SCOTLAND IS PAGAN TIMES.

craft, that they were not tools, but weapons, exempted, on
account of their superior excellence of material and work-
manship, from the more common uses, and the tear and wear
of ordinary employment.

From a comparison of the forms presented by the members
of these groups, it appears that the imperforate stone axe
possesses a form which is peculiar to itself. It is unlike
the forms of the bronze axes that succeeded it, as these
are unlike the iron axes that succeeded them. But if it be
true of the typical forms of the axes in bronze and iron, that
they are forms which are specially suited to the properties of
the materials of which they are made, and to the purposes of
the implement, it is none the less true of the Stone Age
implement, that its peculiar specialty of form lias also been
given to it in view of the peculiar properties of the material
of which it is made. It is the form which of all others is
most obviously suited to the properties of the material and
the purposes of the implement. The variations in outline,
size, material, and finish, are considerable, but the suitability
of the form of the implement to its purpose, in view of the
properties of the material, is always apparent.

This will perhaps be more clearly exhibited if, in our
examination of the aggregate collection of these implements,
we commence with the ruder examples, and proceed from
them to those that are more finely finished. The materials
of which they are made are flint, quartzite, porphyry, fel-
stone, serpentine, diorite, and various kinds of granitic and
metamorphic rocks, indurated sandstones, and clay slate.

Taking first those that are made of flint, which are neces-
sarily rare in Scotland, we find them presenting various
degrees of finish, from the roughly chipped specimens with
only a slight grinding at the edge, up to the completely
polished examples. One, of greyish flint (Fig. 315), found
at Newton of Affleck, in the parish of Monikie, Forfarshire,

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

333

Fig. 315.— Axe of Flint found at
Newton of Affleck (If inch in
length).

which is also remarkable as being among the smallest speci-
mens on record, presents this roughly chipped character, the
grinding being confined to
the lower part of the cutting
edge only. It measures 1|
inch in length, by 1 inch in
width across the cutting face,
and tapers to a truncated
butt. In a larger example,
of yellowish flint (Fig. 316),
found at Meft, in the parish
of Urquhart, Elginshire, the
grinding extends over nearly
the whole surface, but has
not been continued so as to
obliterate the hollows pro-
duced in the process of chipping, except on the part nearest
the edge. It measures 3 inches in length, by If inch in
width across the cutting face, and
has slightly rounded sides, and
a truncated butt. A long chisel-
like axe of dark-coloured flint
(Fig. 317), from the parish of
Fordoun, Kincardineshire, shows
the chipping over its whole sur-
face, except the part immediately
above the cutting edge. It has
been chipped from both sides so
as to leave a ridge running up the
centre, thus giving the cross-
section in the middle of its length
an irregularly lozenge-shaped out-
line. The butt is not truncated,
but tapered to a point, and the edge is more flattened on one

Fig. 316.

Axe of Flint from Urquhart,
Elginshire (3 inches in
length).

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN Tl

side than on the other. It measures 8 inches in length, by
1£ inch across the cutting face. A finely made example,
of a bright yellowish flint, found near Dundee (Fig. 318), has

Fig. 317.— Axe of Flint found at Fordoun,
Kincanlineshire (8 inches in length).

Fig. 318.— Axe of Flint found near Dundee
(&t inches in length).

the edges nearly straight, with a very slight taper to the
butt, which is of the same form as the cutting edge.
Although the grinding does not extend much above the
edge, the outlines of the implement, formed by chipping
alone, are singularly straight and regular. It is thinner,
in proportion to its width, than any of those that have
been described, for though it measures 5£ inches in length,
by 2| inches in breadth, it nowhere exceeds -J- inch in
thickness.1

1 This example, along with Figa. 55, 58, 315, 353, and the large arrow-
head figured on the Title-page, are in the collection of Mr. John Sturrock,
F.S.A. Scot

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

335

A beautifully formed and perfectly polished axe of yellow
flint (Fig. 319), remarkable for its length and slenderness,
found many years ago in Buchan,
Aberdeenshire, was long in the
possession of a working shoemaker
in Old Deer, who delighted in
showing it to his friends and cus-
tomers. Unfortunately it slipped
from the fingers of one who was
examining it, and received irre-
trievable damage by falling on the
shoemaker's lapstone. Mutilated
as it is, however, it is still a most
remarkable example of the mar-
vellous handicraft of the ancient
makers of stone tools and weapons.
When perfect it would have com-
pared favourably with any speci-
men of lapidary work, ancient or
modern. It is still 8 inches in
length, wanting a portion of the
butt, and a larger portion at the
cutting edge. It is slightly lozenge-
shaped in section in the middle
of its length, decreasing in thick-
ness towards both ends. Its width
at the broken part of the lower
end is 1J inch, and at the butt
| inch, nowhere exceeding | inch in thickness.

One of the most beautifully finished specimens of
polished flint (Fig. 320), closely resembling those found at
Fochabers (as previously noticed), was ploughed up at
Gilmerton in East Lothian, and presented to the Society's
Museum in April 1782, where it has been preserved now

Fig. 319.— Chisel-like Axe of
Flint, Old Deer (8 inches
in length).

336 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 320.— Polished Axe of Yellow Flint found nt Gilmerton
(9 j inches in length).

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

337

upwards of a century. It is of a pale yellow flint, 9£ inches
in length, and 2f inches in width across the cutting face,
finely polished all over,
the sides ground flat, and
the edges slightly expand-
ing at the ends, which
are both equally sharp.

An adze-head of flint
(Fig. 321), smaller in size,
but of almost equal fine-
ness of finish, from Ferny
Brae, in the parish of
Slains, Aberdeenshire, pre-
sents a notable peculiarity
of form, being almost flat
on one side, and ridged
on the back, the ends
ground down from the
ridge to a rounded cutting
edge. It measures 6f
inches in length and 2£ inches in width across the cutting
face at the wider end.

Turning now to the axes that are made of other materials
than flint, we find that they are almost invariably smoothed
or polished all over the surface. This difference of finish
appears to be due simply to the difference in the nature of
the material of which they are composed. On account of its
conchoidal fracture, a nodule of flint is readily brought to the
desired shape by chipping, although it is extremely difficult
to grind and polish. But it is different with these other
materials which do not possess the conchoidal fracture, and
therefore cannot be so readily brought to shape by chipping,
although, when they have been shaped, they may be ground
or polished with comparative ease.
22

Fig. 321.— Polished Adze of Grey Flint
found at Slains (6| inches in length).

338

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

Fig. 322.

Stone Axe found at Dundee
(2| inches in length).

These polished axes made of other materials than Hint
vary greatly in size, from little more that 1£ inch to 15
inches in length. The smallest in the National Collection,
a finely polished implement of greyish porphyry, from the
parish of Urquhart, Elginshire, is If inch in length by 1J
inch across the cutting face, and £ inch wide at the butt,

nowhere exceeding a thickness
of f inch. It is of the same
form as the specimen here
figured from Dundee (Fig. 322),
a well-made little axe, with
flattened sides and butt, mea-
suring 2f inches in length, 2
inches across the cutting face,
tapering to 1 inch at the butt,
and nowhere exceeding f inch
in thickness. A larger ex-
ample, of reddish quartzite, with straighter sides and more
rounded butt, found at Dalmeny, Midlothian (Fig. 323),
is perfect in edge and outline, and carefully polished,
except on the rounding of the butt, which still bears the
marks of picking or dressing with a pointed tool. It
measures 5f inches in length by 3 inches in breadth across
the cutting face, and 1 i inch in greatest thickness.

A very pretty specimen, from Caithness, of a hard light-
green stone, almost like jadeite, with a beautiful polish (Fig.
324), has a longish oval section in the middle of its length,
tapering to a point at the butt. It measures 3| inches in
length by 1£ inch across the cutting face. Another of the
same form, but of much larger size (though here drawn to a
smaller scale as Fig. 325), comes from Berwickshire. The
material is a bluish stone resembling aphanite. It measures
10 \ inches in length by 2£ inches across the cutting face.
Two specimens from Shetland, scarcely so graceful in outline,

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 339

Fig. 323.— Stone Axe found at Dalmeny
(5| inches in length).

Fig. 324.— Stone Axe from Caithness Fig. 325.— Stone Aze from Berwickshire

(3J inches in length). (10^ inches in length).

340

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

exhibit modifications of this form. One (shown in Fig. 326)
is of greyish porphyritic stone, 10 inches in length, and
3 inches across the centre where it is widest, oval in section,
tapering both ways from the middle, upwards to a pointed
butt, and downwards to an oval cutting edge. It was found
under six feet of peat on the hill above Grimaster, called

Fig. 326.— Axe of Porphyrite found
near Lerwick (10 inches in
length).

Fig. 327.— Stone Axe found at
Cuuuingsburgh, Shetland
(10| inches in length).

Mount Bran, about two miles from Lerwick. The other axe
(Fig. 327), which comes from Cunningsburgh, is formed of a
highly indurated shale, and is less regularly formed, slightly
broken at the butt, and the cutting edge more rounded. It
measures lOi inches in length. Other two specimens from
Shetland exhibit different varieties of form. One, of por-

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

341

phyritic stone (Fig. 328), is of a more cylindrical body,
slightly oval in the cross-section in the middle of its length,

Fig. 328.— Axe of Porphyry from Shetland
(11 inches in length).

Fig. 329. — Adze of Serpentine fiom
Shetland (11£ inches in length).

tapering upwards to a bluntly pointed butt, and downwards
to a more flattened cutting edge, which expands at both
sides in a manner more frequently seen in implements of
bronze than in those of stone. It measures 11 inches in
length by 4£ inches across the cutting face. The other
specimen (Fig. 329), which is of a more slender form, has the
peculiarity of being flatter on one side than on the other,
so that it is more adze-shaped than axe-shaped. It differs
also in being almost alike at both ends, but sharper at the

342 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

wide end. It measures 1U inches in length, 2} inches wide
at the broader end, If inch at the other. A larger and
more distinctly adze-shaped implement of indurated clay-

Fig. 330.— Adze of Clay stone from Shetland
(14 inches in length).

stone (Fig. 330), also from Shetland, is remarkable for its
curvature in the direction of its length. In the cross-section
it is a greatly compressed oval, but its most remarkable

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

343

peculiarity is that, instead of tapering both ways from the
centre, it preserves an almost equal thickness throughout its
length, and tapers only in the width. It measures 1 4 inches
in length, and 5 inches across the cutting face, and nowhere
exceeds 1| inch in thickness. A few examples, found in
various parts of Scotland, a.re remarkable for their thinness
in proportion to their breadth. They are mostly of a
greenish stone, like a jadeite, sometimes of avanturine, but

Fig. 331.— Axe of Jadeite found on the banks of the Ericht
(8 inches in length).

always of the finest make, beautifully finished, and highly
polished. One, found on the banks of the Ericht, in Perth-

344

SCOTLAND IN 1'AGAN TIMES.

shire (Fig. 331), darkly mottled on the upper part, of a
light lustrous green in the lower part, is 8 inches in length,
by 3 inches in width across the cutting face, $ inch in
thickness in the middle, and tapering equally to both ends.

Fig. 332.— Axe of Avanturine, ploughed up at Cunzierton,
Roxburghshire (7k inches in length).

Another of this flat triangular shape (Fig. 332), recently
ploughed up at Cunzierton, Roxburghshire, is a beautifully
formed instrument of green avanturiue, nowhere more
than | inch in thickness. It measures 7£ inches in length
by 3J inches across the cutting face, tapering regularly to a
pointed butt. Another implement, of a mottled greenish

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

345

stone, and slightly larger in size (though here drawn to a
smaller scale as Fig. 333), was found in Glenjorrie Burn
near Glenluce, Wigtownshire. It differs from the two last
described in being almost flat on one side, and thinning
from the centre towards the edges longitudinally as well as
towards both ends. It measures 8£ inches in length, and

Fig. 333. — Adze of Greenstone found
near Glenluce, Wigtownsliire
(8J inches in length).

Fig. 334. — Stone Adze found at Little
Barras, Kincardineshire (5$ inches
in length).

3£ inches in width across the cutting face, tapering regularly
to a pointed butt. Its greatest thickness in the centre is
only f inch. A form having both ends alike, but possess-
ing the adze-like peculiarity of having one of its faces
flattened longitudinally, occurs, both in flint, and occasionally
in other materials. An example in greenstone from Little
Ban-as, Drumlithie, Kincardineshire (Fig. 334), closely re-

346

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

sembles in form the more finely made specimen in polished
grey flint from Ferny Brae, Slains,1 to which reference has
already been made. It is, however, somewhat more rounded
on the flat face, and much less carefully finished. It
measures "> j inches in length, 2 inches in breadth across
the cutting face, tapering to 1J inch at the butt, and
nowhere exceeds 1 inch in thickness.

This form, having both ends alike, more frequently
presents an axe-shape with both faces alike. An example in

felstone, from Kirklauchline,
Wigtownshire (here drawn
to a small scale, Fig. 335),
measures 1 3 inches in length,
by 3J inches wide at the
cutting edge, and 2j inches
at the butt. It is a pointed
oval in the cross-section,
tapering regularly to both
ends from the centre, having
one face slightly flatter than
the other, and showing a
slight expansion of the
width towards both ends, so
as to give a slightly in-

Fig. 335.- -Stone Axe found at Kirk- curved Outline to the sides,

lauchline, Wigtownshire (13 inches . ,. . . .

in length). •"• splendid specimen of com-

pact greenstone from Stir-
lingshire (Fig. 336), measuring 13J inches in length, by
3J inches in greatest width, exhibits the opposite tendency
in its longitudinal outlines, the curves of the sides
swelling gently outwards from both ends, so that its greatest
width comes a little below the middle of its length.
It is finely polished, and has the side edges ground flat, so

1 Comjwuv the engraving, Fig. 321, on p. 337.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 347

Fig. 336.— Stone Axe from Stirlingshire (13£ inches in length).

348

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM is.

that the cross-section is a longish oval with the pointed
ends cut squarely off. Both ends are shaped alike, and

Fig. 837. — Stone Axe from Brownliill, Tarbolton, Ayrshire
(10i inches in length).

both nearly equally sharp. A fine specimen of a grey
silicious stone, like a whetstone, but of greater density, found

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 349

at Brownhill, in the parish of Tarbolton, Ayrshire (Fig. 337),
approximates in form to those of polished flint already
described from Fochabers and Gilmerton.1 It measures
10| inches in length, and 3 inches across the cutting face,
tapering to a width of If inch at the small end, which is
also finished with a sharp edge. The longitudinal edges of
the implement are not ground flat, but slightly bevelled
from both sides.

With regard to the grinding and polishing of these
implements, the markings on the faces and edges of those
in which the traces of the grinding have not been polished
out, appear to indicate that the grinding was always accom-
plished by the manual labour of rubbing the implement
either with or upon another stone, probably with the aid of
sand and water. Grinding-stones, which appear to have
been used for the finishing of stone axes, have been
occasionally found in Scotland. Sometimes they are merely

Fig. 338. — Polygonal Grinding-stone of Quartzite
(13J inches in length).

rough boulders of a hard close-grained texture with elon-
gated hollows worn by the grinding process. Occasionally
a portable stone of this description seems to have been
used. Such a portable grinding-stone of quartzite (Fig. 338),
13£ inches in length, 3 inches in width, and 2f inches in
thickness, was found in excavating a drain on Lambertou

1 See the engravings of these examples, Figs. 314 and 320, at p. 331
and p. 336.

350 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIME8.

Moor, Berwickshire. It has been worn to a polygonal
shape, and bears on one of its broader sides three grinding
or polishing faces, which have been worn to concave surfaces,
highly polished by long-continued use. The concavities of
these grinding surfaces are greatest towards the centre of
the stone where the pressure of friction has been greatest.
On one of its narrower sides two similar grinding faces are
presented, and on the opposite side there is but one grinding
face, broader and more concave than the others. The
broader side opposite to that first described has not been
used, and its surface is convex, instead of concave.

Fig. 339.— Grinding-stone with Stone Axe lying in its hollow
(5 inches in length).

A grinding-stone of red sandstone, considerably hollowed
by use, was found in the moor beside the sand-hills of
Stoneykirk, in Wigtownshire. Upon it, when found, as in
Fig. 339, there lay a small stone axe of Silurian schist, with
a slightly convex edge and rounded butt The Rev. George
Wilson, who first described this grinding-stone, remarks, that
though it is the only example yet recorded in Scotland of
a stone axe having been found in such an association,
several instances are reported from England in which flint

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 351

tools with ground edges have been found lying beside whet-
stones.1

There can be little doubt that, while the smaller and less
finely finished examples of these imperforate axes are more
of the nature of tools than weapons, a considerable number
of the larger and more carefully finished and finely polished
examples must be regarded as weapons. Indeed, it is not
improbable that, as in historical times, the iron axe has
served the double purpose of tool and weapon, the great
majority of these stone axes may have been habitually used
both as weapons and as tools. The consideration of their
effective use in either capacity implies an investigation of
the manner in which they were handled. Probably this
was accomplished in various ways, analogous to the methods
that are in use among the people who still use implements
of stone. One method of mounting a stone axe in its
handle, which is still practised by the inhabitants of New
Guinea, is shown in Fig. 340. The axe-head is inserted

Fig. 340.— Axe of Diorite in its handle, from New Guinea
(19 inches in length).

in the split end of a short piece of wood, and secured by a
double lashing of twisted grass cords. The butt end of this
piece of wood is tapered off and inserted in a circular hole
passing through the thick end of the handle. In this case
1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. iii. (New Series), p. 263.

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

the wooden mount which carries the axe-head is 6 inches in
length ; the axe-head projects 2 inches beyond the end of

the mounting, and the
handle which carries the
mount is 19 inches in
length. The adze-shaped
stone implements of some of
the South Pacific islanders
(Fig. 341) are mounted
differently. A kneed branch
is selected, one limb of
which is cut off short.
In the split end of the
shorter limb the adze -head

Fig. 341.— Stone Adze in its Handle, is firmly Secured by lash-
from South Pacific.

ings of twisted grass, while
the other end above the junction with the longer limb

Fig. 342. — Adze of Diorite in its Handle, from New Guinea
(22 inches in length).

is tapered off, the long limb serving as the handle. In
an example from New Guinea (Fig. 342), the knee which

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

353

carries the adze-head is 15 inches long, the adze-head pro-
jecting 2| inches; the handle is 22 inches in length. In
Australia the mode of hafting is by passing a bent withe
round the body of the axe (Fig. 343), which is secured in

Fig. 343. — Stone Axe handled in a looped withe, from the Murray River,
South Australia.

the loop of the withe by a mass of gum, the free ends of
the loop being loosely fastened by a cord. In France and
in the Swiss Lake Dwellings of the Stone Age a common
method of hafting the smaller axes was by inserting them in

Fig. 344. — Stone Axe, with its handle, found in the Solway Moss.

mounts of deer-horn, mortised into wooden handles. The
only instance in Scotland which affords direct evidence of
the manner in which stone axes were handled (Fig. 344) is
one preserved in the British Museum, which was found by
a man digging peats, at a depth of six feet, in the Solway
23

354

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM is.

Moss, near Loiigtown. The axe is now quite loose in the
handle, which has shrunk greatly in the drying, and is
broken in several places. It is also evident from the mark
of the wood upon the blade of the axe that it was inclined
at a considerable angle, instead of being nearly vertical to
the line of the handle, as here shown. In the Scottish
Collection there are two specimens which show the mark of
the handle as a dark band passing obliquely across the

body of the implement One
of these is here shown (Fig. 345).
It is of felstone, 8 inches in length,
and 2 inches across the cutting
face. It was found in a peat
moss at Ervie, in the parish of
Kirkcolm, Wigtownshire, and the
darker mark of the handle is
probably due to the discharge of
the colour from the slightly de-
composed surface.

There are other varieties of
stone implements and weapons
of Stone Age types, such as spear
and arrow heads, knives, saws,
borers, scrapers, and punch-like
tools or " fabricators," which seem
to have been used in the manu-
facture of the other varieties of implements. These are all
made usually of flint, a nd for the most part fashioned and
finished by chipping alone. The only exception is the
knife, certain varieties of which are made in flint with a
ground edge, and in schist, slate, or porphyry, with the
whole surface of the implement ground smooth or polished.

The spear and arrow heads differ only in size, so that it
is difficult to say where the one class ends and the other

Fig. 345.— Stone Axe from Ervie,
showing mark of handle
(8 inches in length).

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

355

begins. None of the flint spear-heads are very large, the
largest in the National Collection (Fig. 346) being only
3 inches in length. It is a finely made lance-head of leaf
shape, from the parish of Urquhart, Elginshire. Another
spear or lance head from Machermore, Old Luce, Wigtown-
shire (Fig. 347), is triangular in form, with barbs and a
central tang or stem for attachment to the shaft. It is
3 inches in length, and a portion of the point is wanting.

Fig. 346. — Leaf-shaped Spear-
head, from Urquhart, Elgin-
shire (3 inches in length).

Fig. 347.— Spear-head of Flint
from Machermore, Wigtown-
shire (13 inches in length).

The arrow-heads are divisible by their form into the
same two classes, leaf-shaped and triangular. The commonest
form of the leaf-shaped variety is shown in Fig. 348, from
the Culbin Sands, Elginshire. Occasionally the outlines
have more convexity, the breadth is less, and the superior
and inferior segments more nearly equal. In Fig. 349,
which comes from Urquhart, Elginshire, the edges are
finely serrated, the basal segment more convex, and the
superior outlines straighter and more prolonged. In
Fig. 350, from the Culbin Sands, Elginshire, the superior

S56

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM!>

edges exhibit a slight concavity of outline, and the basal
edges a considerable convexity. The two specimens shown
in Figs. 351, 352, of which the one comes from the Culbin
Sands, Elginshire, and the other from Knockscreb, Torrs, in

Figs. 348, 349, 350.— Leaf-shaped Arrow-heads of Flint (actual size).

the parish of Old Luce, Wigtownshire, have both ends
tapered to a sharp point. It seems probable that the leaf-
shaped arrow-head may have been the earliest form, but, as
has been already stated, both the leaf-shaped variety and

Figs. 351, 352.— Leaf -shaped Arrow-heads of Flint (actual size).

the triangular variety with barbs and a central stem, were
found in the chambered cairn of Unstan, in Orkney.

The triangular form of arrow-head may be subdivided
into two varieties — with, or without a central stem. Both

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

357

varieties are usually furnished with barbs, though some
examples with a straight-based triangular outline are
occasionally found. Of the class with barbs and a central
tang or stem for attachment to the shaft, three specimens,
characterised by the serration of their edges, are here pre-
sented. The first (Fig. 353), from Petty, near Fordoun,
Kincardineshire, is a finely made example, the sides having
a slight ogee curve and minutely serrated, the stem flattened
and rounded at the base, the barbs long, and their bases
slanting from the inner side backwards, so as to meet the
outer edge of the curve of the sides at a sharp angle. The

Figs. 353, 354, 355.— Serrated Arrow-heads of Flint, with barbs and stem
(actual size).

second example (Fig. 354), from Urquhart, Elginshire, is
larger, the edges less finely serrated, the stem thicker, and
the openings between it and the barbs less carefully made.
The third (Fig. 355), also from Urquhart, is more triangular
in outline, the serration much more coarsely executed, and
the barbs less developed.

In the examples next shown the edges are not serrated.
Fig. 3 5 6, found on the estate of Lanfine, in Ayrshire, is stout,
and somewhat coarsely made. Fig. 357, also from Lanfine,
is more elongated in proportion to its breadth, and the barbs
tapered to sharper points. Fig. 358, from Glenluce, Wigtown-

358

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM IX

shire, has the sides almost straight, the apertures between
the barbs and stem most carefully made, and the bases of

Figs. 356, 357, 358.— Flint Arrow-heads, with barbs and stem (actual size).

the barbs slanting from the inner side forward, or in the
contrary direction to those of Fig. 353. In the next group of
three arrow-heads, Fig. 359 from Torrs, Old Luce, Wigtown-
shire, is a smaller specimen of the elongated form of Fig. 357,
from Lanfine. Fig. 360, also from Torrs, is of the same
elongated form, but differs in the shortness of the barbs
and the excessive breadth of the tang or stem ; while
Fig. 361, from the Culbin Sands, Elginshire, has the sides

Figs. 359, 360, 361.— Flint Arrow-heads, with barbs and stein (actual size).

more distinctly curved, the barbs even shorter, and the
stem almost quadrangular in section. Fig. 362, from Torrs,

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

359

Old Luce, Wigtownshire, has a broad stem trimmed off
below to an angular point, and the bases of the barbs
slightly rounded. Fig. 363, from the island of Shapinshay,
in Orkney, has slightly curved outlines, the bases of the
barbs also slanting slightly forward from the inner side

Figs. 362. 363, 364.— Flint Arrow-heads, with barbs and stem (actual size).

and the stem slightly tapering. Fig. 364, from Torrs, Old
Luce, Wigtownshire, is nearly of the same form but less
symmetrical. In Fig. 365, from the Culbin Sands, Elginshire,
we have an example of an almost leaf-shaped outline with
the base hollowed to a pointed stem. Fig. 366, also from
the Culbin Sands, is another example of a similar form, but

Figs. 365, 366, 367. -Flint Arrow-heads, with barbs and stem
(actual size).

broader in proportion to its length, and the stem thickened
and more prolonged. Fig. 367, from Whitecrook, Old Luce,
Wigtownshire, represents one of the smallest arrow-heads
of this form in the National Collection.

The variety of triangular shaped arrow-head, with barbs,

860

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

but without a central tang or stem, is the least common of
the various forms of these weapon points of flint Fig. 368,
from Ellon, Aberdeenshire, is remarkable for its stoutness in
proportion to its length. Fig. 369 is a finely made speci-
men from Torrs, Old Luce, Wigtownshire, unfortunately
broken at the point, but remarkable for its length and
symmetry of form. Fig. 370, also from Torrs, Old Luce,
more nearly resembles the example from Ellon. A strange
variety of this stemless form of arrow-head is occasionally
found, formed of a thin flat flake, with careful chipping

Figs. 368, 369, 370.— Flint Arrow-heads, with barbe, but stemless
(actual size).

sometimes on one of its flat faces only, at other times
trimmed from the edge on both faces, but usually unsym-
metrical, and often with one long wing-like barb, which
gives it a curious lop-sided appearance. Three specimens
(Figs. 371-373) are here figured, from the Culbin Sands,
Elginshire. An arrow-head of this description, found in one
of the chambered cairns of Caithness, has been already
noticed,1 and several others have been found in different parts
of the country.

We have no actual evidence of the mode of attaching

1 See the description at p. 246, Fig. 245.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

361

these barbed and tanged arrow-heads to the arrow-shaft.
But there can be little doubt that the purpose of the stem

Figs. 371, 372, 373. — Flint Arrow-heads, stemless and unsymmetrical
(actual size).

was its insertion in the cleft end of the shaft, which would
then be bound with sinews, as is the case with the modern
stone arrow-heads of some of
the Californian Indian tribes
(see Fig. 374). But we have
the actual evidence of a single
specimen of the leaf-shaped
arrow-head, found in 1875, in a
moss at Fyvie, Aberdeenshire,
and fortunately preserved. When
found, the shaft was entire to
the length of about 9 inches.
The workmen who found it un-
fortunately reduced its length to
3 inches by breaking pieces off
it. It is also probable that the
rough handling to which it was
thus subjected may have caused
the flint arrow-head to slip further into the cleft end of the
shaft (which was then quite wet and soft), seeing that the

Fig. 374.— Arrow-head of Chert,
attached to the shaft by
sinews, from California.

362

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN Tl

split ends of the shaft now reach quite to the point of the
arrow-head (Fig. 375). This, however, is the form invari-
ably assumed by the socketed
midrib of the spear-heads of
bronze. The arrow-head is a
very thin and finely made one,
of pale yellow flint. The shaft
is of a hard tough wood which
I have been unable to identify.
It has shrunk considerably in
the drying. In all probability it
would have been bound imme-
diately behind the head by
sinews, as shown in an example
of a triangular arrow-head found
in the moss of Geisboden, in
Switzerland (Fig. 376). The in-
spection of this Fyvie arrow-
shaft suggested to me the desira-
bility of the investigation of the process by which such

shafts might be produced with
tools of flint. Accordingly, I
selected a series of the most
likely implements, consisting of

(1) a large thick-backed knife-
shaped flake, with a rough edge,
to be used as a cross-cut saw;

(2) a ridged triangular flake
(Fig. 337), about 3 inches in
length, having a considerable
curve in the direction of its
length; (3) a small finely
worked knife-like implement

(Fig. 378), of beautifully transparent flint, with a keen and

Fig. 375.— Arrow-head of Flint,
still in the shaft, found in
a moss at Fyvie, Aberdeen-
shire (actual size).

wot

Fig. 376.— Arrow-head of Flint,
in the shaft, found in the
moss of Geisboden, Switzer-
land (actual size).

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

363

delicate edge; (4) a thin lancet-shaped flake (Fig. 379), to
cut the cleft for the arrow-head, and (5) a curiously formed

Fig. 377.— Ridged Flake of Flint (3 inches in length).

disc-shaped implement (Fig. 380), with a semi-circular
hollow on one side, which had a peculiarly bevelled edge,
and which I conjectured to be a tool for planing arrow-
shafts. I then procured a rough piece of pine-wood, a little
over 18 inches in length, and 1 inch by rather more than
^ inch in width and thickness. Having first sawn off the
ends with the stout thick-backed flake, and thus reduced the
rough piece of wood to 18 inches in length, I set to work

Figs. 378, 379, 380. — Flint Knives and Planing Implement for
Arrow-shafts (actual size).

to discover how the thickness might be reduced to the form
of an arrow- shaft. A multitude of experiments were tried

364 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

without success, when at last I saw that by bringing the
bent part of the long flake (Fig. 377) obliquely over the
piece of wood held endwise against the breast, with the flat
side of the flake to the surface of the wood, and then drawing
it quickly towards the body, the sharp edge, passing diagonally
over the surface, stripped off shavings like a spokeshave.
With a little practice I found that by this method I could
strip off shavings 10 or 12 inches in length at every
stroke. Wrapping a bit of soft leather round the butt-end of
the flake to protect the fingers and give a firmer hold, I soon
reduced the wood to the desired shape, though the surface
remained rather rough and uneven. Then the question
came to be how the surface was to be made smooth and
even ; and the hollow scraper (Fig. 380) was tried in several
ways, with no satisfactory result. Experience and reflection
at length enabled me to see that there was only one way in
which the tool could be used efficiently. Placing one end of
the arrow-shaft against the breast as before, embracing it
between the two ends of the crescentic hollow in the side of
the scraper, and then drawing the scraper quickly towards
the body, with the opposing crescentic ends pressed firmly
against the shaft (the one pressing upwards the other down-
wards), the drawing motion caused the sharp under-edge of
the curve to act like the edge of a plane ; and thus, by simply
rotating the shaft during the operation, an equally smooth
cylindrical surface was gradually produced. The notch for
the string of the bow, in the butt-end of the shaft, was cut
with the knife (Fig. 378), and the slit at the top, for the
insertion of the arrow-head of flint, was readily cut with the
thinner flake (Fig. 379). The feathers were cut and trimmed
with the same implements, and tied on with sinews. A
binding of sinew round the split point of the shaft, to secure
the head in its place, completed the operation.

It is more difficult to classify those implements of flint

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 365

which are not of the nature of weapon points for use in war
or in the chase. They seem, however, naturally to divide
themselves chiefly into cutting and scraping implements, the
former including generally such forms as may have served
for knives and saws, and the latter the different varieties of
the round-nosed tools denominated scrapers. After these
comes a rarer series of tools, which seem to have served the
purpose of awls or borers, and a set of implements of more
ambiguous character which have been termed " fabricators "
from their supposed use in connection with the manufacture
of other flint implements, such as arrow-heads, etc. The
groundwork of each of these implements is a flake, struck
from a prepared core of flint, in such a manner that it
presents a more or less triangular cross-section. Such flakes
may be of any length, up to 5 or 6 inches, although in Scot-
land, where it is difficult to find blocks of flint of sufficient
size, the flakes are usually small. Of course such a flake
may be used for a variety of purposes connected with the
cutting or scraping of softer materials, and many present
evidence of having been so used, without any preparation
by secondary working of the edge. It is obvious, for instance
that a flake like that already instanced (Fig. 377), may be
used either to cut or to scrape wood or bone, or deer-horn,
as long as its edge retains its keenness. But the natural
edge is soon blunted and broken, and when a tool of this
kind was intended for continuous use, it was prepared by
secondary working along its edges, and trimmed to a point
more or less rounded or oval in form.

A fine example of the long lanceolate flake, having both
edges trimmed, so that the secondary working meets the
flat underside of the flake at an acute angle, and forms a
cutting edge capable of being renewed by retrimming when
worn or blunted by use, is here shown on a slightly reduced
scale (Fig. 381). The original, which is 4| inches in length,

SCOTLAND IX I'AGAX

and fully } inch in extreme width, was found in the island
of Rousay, in Orkney. The flake from which it was formed

has a somewhat irregular curva-
ture, shown in the side view, but
the edges are carefully worked,
and the untrimmed butt-end may
have been inserted in a handle of
wood to make it more effective as
a cutting implement. But the
knife of flint presents itself in
a considerable variety of forms,
frequently less suggestive of the
purpose, and apparently less
adapted to insure the efficiency
of the implement In Fig. 382,
found in removing a large mound
known as the Court-hill of Dairy,
in Ayrshire, the blade is of trian-
gular form, having the sharp edge
formed by chipping from both
faces in the same manner as the
edges of the spear and arrow
heads, while the opposite edge is
bluntly rounded for convenience in holding the imple-
ment when in use. Another blade from the same place
(Fig. 383), of more elongated form, oval at both ends,
is rounded by secondary working on the ridged back of
the flake, the under-side flat, and the edges considerably
blunted by use. It is of course impossible to affirm that
implements like these were not as often used for scraping
as for cutting, and I adduce these instances merely for
the purpose of showing how the knife-like implement of
flint passes, on the one hand, into the triangular or leaf-shaped
form of the arrow or spear head, and on the other hand, into

Fig. 381.— Flint Knife found
in Rousay, Orkney (4J
inches in length).

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

367

a form undistinguishable from that of the scraper. The two
examples here figured (Figs. 384, 385), from Torrs, Old Luce,

Figs. 382, 383. — Flint Flakes, trimmed for cutting or scraping (actual size).

Wigtownshire, are thinner and more knife-like in form. In
Figs. 386, 387, from the Culbin Sands, Elginshire, we observe

Figs. 384, 385.— Trimmed Knives or Scrapers of Flint (actual size).

a characteristic individuality of form and workmanship, which
indicates a more efficient implement, with greater denniteness

368 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

and specialty of purpose. They are formed of thin flakes,
carefully worked to a sharp edge all round, and, though of

Figs. 386, 387.— Flint Knives from the Culbin Sands, Elginshire
(actual size).

small size, they are not smaller than the rough chips of
obsidian which the New Zealanders formerly used as cutting
instruments. Fig. 388 represents a single-edged scraper-
shaped knife of agate, found in a cairn at Hatton, in the

Figs. 38S, 389.— Flint Knives, single and doable-edged (actual size).

parish of Monikie, Forfarshire ; and Fig. 389, a double-edged
oval blade of reddish flint from the Culbin Sands. The

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

369

variety of blade in which the edge is ground, instead of
chipped, is of much rarer occurrence. Two examples have
already been cited from chambered cairns in Caithness.1
One, almost precisely similar in size and shape, and formed
of dark-coloured flint, was found in Urquhart, Elginshire.
It measures 2£ inches in length, and | inch in greatest
breadth, has one end neatly rounded, and its edge carefully
ground. Another, of slightly larger size, formed of grey
flint, from Strachur, Argyllshire, is 2f inches in length, and f
inch in greatest breadth, the ends neatly trimmed, the back
rounded, and the edge carefully ground (Figs. 390, 391).

Figs. 390, 391. — Flint Knives, with ground edges, from Urquhart
and Strachur (actual size).

There is another, almost similar to this, from Blelak, Aber-
deenshire. A more peculiar form of flint blade is of discoidal
shape, and has the semicircular edge sharpened by grinding
from both faces. One, found near Kintore, Aberdeenshire
(Fig. 392), measures 3 inches by 2f inches. Another, from
Fordoun, Kincardineshire (Fig. 393), measures 3| inches by
3| inches, and at its thickest part is less than J inch in
thickness. There is a third specimen in the Museum, from
Lanarkshire. A series of large, flat, irregularly oval blades
(Fig. 394) of porphyritic stone or madreporite, found only in

1 See the descriptions, p. 241, Fig. 244 ; and p. 253, Fig. 251.
24

370

SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIM! >

Shetland, have sharper edges, sometimes continued round
the whole circumference, sometimes with slightly thickened

Figs. 392, 393. — Ground-edged Flint Implements, found near Kintore
and near Furdoun (3 inches and 3$ inches in length).

and blunted backs. They are ground to a smooth even
surface on their flat faces.1 Another form of knife (Fig. 395),

Fig. 891— Polished Oval Implement of Porphyry, from Shetland
(51 inches in length).

of which only one complete example exists in the Museum,
appears also to be peculiar to Shetland — at least, it has
not yet been found in any other British locality, though
the type is known in the northern parts of Norway. It is

1 Dr. D. Wilson states, in his Prehwtoric Annals of Scotland (vol. i.
p. 184), that implements mostly of this class were found in the mosses of
Blair-Drummood and Meiklewood. There is. however, no extant evidence
to prove that the stone implements so found were of this special type,
which is peculiar to the Shetland Islands. So far as yet known, no-
existing example has been traced to any other locality.

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

371

a long blade of fissile shale or slaty sandstone, with a more
or less convex edge, a thickened back, and a projecting tang-
like handle. This specimen is 9| inches in length, and 2£

Fig. 395.— Knife of Sandstone, from Shetland (94 inches in length).

inches across the widest part of the blade. Its surface is
ground smooth all over, and the edge is sharpened by grind-
ing from both faces. This variety of implement appears to
have been very abundant, though, owing to its extreme
thinness and consequent fragility, it is but seldom that an

Figs. 396, 397.— Fragments of Knives of Schist, from Shetland.

entire specimen is met with. There are, however, upwards
of twenty fragments in the Museum (Figs. 396, 397) which
exhibit with greater or less distinctness the peculiar features
of the type.1

1 For an account of the Norwegian examples, see the Foreningenfor
Norske Mindesmcerker'a Sevaring, Aarsleretniny for 1877, p. 105.

372

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIM is.

The flint saw is simply a flake, trimmed to an edge which
is jagged, instead of being sharpened either by chipping or
grinding. They are usually of small size, and sometimes
the teeth are formed with extreme regularity and fineness.
The three specimens here figured, of different varieties of
form (Figs. 398, 399, 400), are from the sands of Glenluce, in
Wigtownshire. Though of less frequent occurrence than
knives of flint, they are by no means rare, the number of
specimens in the Museum now exceeding sixty.

Figs. 398, 399, 400.— Flint Saws found at Glenluce (actual size).

Of course there is nothing against the supposition that
both knives and saws may have been occasionally fixed in
handles of wood, or bone, or horn. Such handled implements
have been found in the Swiss Lake Dwellings, but there
is no clear evidence that any of the Scottish specimens
were provided with handles of any kind. They may have
been used, as New Zealanders used chips of obsidian, for
knives, held simply between the forefinger and thumb, or as
some of the Australian tribes used their roughly flaked
knives of stone, with a piece of the skin of an animal wound

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 373

round the butt-end of the flake to enable them to grasp it
more firmly.

Flint tools which seem to have been intended for awls or
borers are not of very common occurrence. They are of two
varieties, a long-pointed form which may have been used for
piercing holes in soft materials, such as skins, and a shorter
pointed form, which may have been used for drilling holes
in harder materials. A very characteristic specimen of the
first form is here figured from Galston, Ayrshire (Fig. 401),
and an equally characteristic example of the second form
is shown in the specimen from the Culbin Sands, Elginshire
(Fig. 402).

Figs. 401, 402.— Borers of Fliut (actual size).

The implements which, for want of a better name, have
been styled " fabricators " or " flaking tools," are long and
chisel-shaped, with a slightly lozenge-shaped section. They
usually present " a blunted, worn, and rounded appearance at
one or both ends, as if resulting from attrition against a hard
substance ; " and Mr. Evans has suggested " that their purpose
may have been for chipping out arrow-heads and other small
instruments of flint." l Whether this may have been their
purpose or not, the typical form of these implements is

1 Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, p. 367.

374

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMKS.

sufficiently characteristic. They are by no means common
in Scotland. The Museum possesses two from Kincardine-
shire, one of which, from Fordoun, is here figured (Fig. 403)
to a scale of three-fourths of the actual size ; the third, which

Fig. 403.— Flint Implement or
Fabricator, from Fordoun
(j of actual size).

Fig. 404. — Flint Implement or
Fabricator, from Corennie
(actual size).

is represented in the Museum by a cast, is figured (Fig. 404)

of the actual size. It was found on the Hill of Corennie,

Aberdeenshire. A fourth, from Unstan, is shown in Fig. 283.

The " scraper " of flint is a round-nosed flake, which has

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE.

375

Fig. 405.— Flint Scraper, front, back,
and side views, found at Urquhart
(2£ inches in length).

the semicircular end chipped to a bevelled edge (as shown in
Fig. 405), from Urquhart, Elginshire. They are usually flat
on the under side, having
the upper side trimmed to
a ridged or irregularly
convex form, but some
are flat both on the
upper and under sides.
They vary extremely in
size, some being from 2
to 3 inches in length,
and others less than a
^ inch in diameter. It
is difficult to regard these
smaller-sized examples as
complete implements, al-
though many of them might be used for scraping
purposes if fixed in a handle of bone or wood, and a
tool precisely similar has been found in use among the
Esquimaux for scraping or currying skins. But as the
long scraper of flint has been found in connection with
interments, associated with a broken nodule of iron
pyrites, bearing the marks of scraping, the obvious in-
ference is that one use of the so-called scraper was that
of a strike-light. A scraper of flint, much worn on
the semicircular edge from use (Fig. 407), and a broken
nodule of iron pyrites, bearing the marks of the friction of a
round-nosed tool along the central portion of its flat face
(Fig. 406), were recently found in association with a cremated
burial at Flowerburn, Eoss-shire, by Major Mackenzie.1
But while it is thus obvious that many of these implements

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. xix. p. 352. For similar instances in
England, see Evans's Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, pp. 282,
286, and Greenwell's British Barrows, p. 41.

376

SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

may have been employed as a means of producing fire with
a nodule of pyrites of iron, in the same manner as the flint
and steel were used before the introduction of the easier
method of modern times, there can be no doubt that many
of these implements were used for scraping purposes in

Figs. 406, 407. — Strike-light Implements. Nodule of Pyrites of Iron,
and Scraper of Flint, found together at Flowerburn, Ross-shire.

connection with the dressing of skins and the preparing and
finishing of tools and appliances in wood and bone. They
differ only in having long necks or short necks, and the
bevelling more or less continued along the side of the imple-
ment In the example from Torrs, Old Luce, Wigtownshire
(Fig. 408), the implement presents the ridge of the flake as a
midrib down the back, and the bevelling of the edge is con-
tinued along one of the sides. The example from Gullane
Links (Fig. 409) is similarly ridged down the back, and
bevelled along one edge, but is shorter and broader in pro-
portion to its length, and more obtusely pointed. The
commoner form of short-necked scraper is shown in Figs.
410, 411, both from Elginshire.

These implements and weapons of chipped flint are found
over the whole of the mainland of Scotland, as well as in
many of the outlying isles. They are found in districts

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 377

Fig. 408. — Scraper of Flint, found at Tbrrs, Old Luce, Wigtownshire
(3 inches in length).

Fig. 409.— Scraper of Flint found at Gullane (2£ in. in length).

Figs. 410, 411. — Scrapers of Flint, from Elginshire (actual size).

878

SCOTLAND IN I' AC AN TI

where natural nodules of flint are unknown, as well as in
districts where the supply of the material is more abundant.
Although flint is nowhere very abundantly found in Scot-
land, there are certain localities which furnish transported
nodules in greater abundance than others, and in these
localities there is always evidence of the practice of a long-
continued and wide-spread industry in the fabrication of
implements and weapons from the raw material. This
evidence consists of innumerable chippings and splinters of
flint, often accumulated in particular spots, as if from the
continuous working of a single individual, or a group of
individuals. A closer examination of the mass of splinters
usually reveals the fact that among them are many flakes,
cores, and unfinished implements; and not unfrequently
hammer and anvil stones, and even perfectly finished knives,
saws, arrow-heads, or axes may be occasionally found,
although the rule is that only the waste products of the
manufacture are met with. From these, and from experi-
mental knowledge of the qualities of the material, the pro-
cesses of the fabrication may be to some extent inferred.
The tools were apparently for the most part naturally formed
pebbles of quartz or quartzite, of a shape and size convenient
for the purpose for which they were used. The larger
pebbles, often of the shape and size of a cobbler's lapstone,
seem to have been used as anvil-stones, while the smaller
pebbles, of such size and shape as could be conveniently
grasped in the hand, have been used as hammer-stones.
This is rendered evident by the fact that the larger or
anvil-stones are worn considerably into irregularly hollowed
depressions on their flat faces, while the smaller or hammer-
stones are worn convexly on their ends. The method of
producing long, slender, and regularly shaped flakes from a
core of flint which is practised by the modern gun-flint
makers with steel tools, has often been described. Dr. John

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 379

Evans, who taught himself the art, has recorded it as his
experience, " that blows from a rounded pebble, judiciously
administered, are capable of producing well-formed flakes,
such as in shape cannot be distinguished from those made
with a metallic hammer." The main difficulties, he says,
" consist first in making the blow fall exactly in the proper
place ; and secondly, in so proportioning its intensity that
it shall simply dislodge a flake without shattering it. The
pebble employed as a hammer need not be attached to a
shaft, but can be used without any preparation in the hand."

When the inferences deduced from an examination and
comparison of the chips, flakes, and cores, which compose
the refuse of these ancient flint workshops, are compared
with the results of the methods still employed, whether by
savage arrow-makers or civilised manufacturers of gun-
flints and strike-lights, the ancient methods of workmanship
are found to coincide with the natural properties of the
material and the modern processes so far as these go. But
the ancient flint-workers went further than modern know-
ledge and modern skill can follow them. There are some
of their processes which have not been discovered by
modern science, and some of their products which cannot
be imitated by modern skill, with all its ingenuity of con-
trivance and all its resources of means and appliances.

Dr. John Evans, although he succeeded by the use of
stag's-horn tools in producing something like the ordinary
surf ace- chipping of the ancient flint-workers, confesses that
the method invented and practised by them of producing
the regular fluting, like ripple-marks, by detaching parallel
splinters uniform in size and extending almost across the
surface of a lance or spear head, is at present a mystery.
This process was commonly practised by the prehistoric
flint-workers of almost all the countries of Europe in which
flint implements are found. But it is a process which is not

380 SCOTLAND IN I'ACAN TIMES.

now known or practised by any of the tribes of savages who
still work in stone, and it is therefore a lost art to them,
as well as a mystery to the man of science.

In speaking of the qualities of workmanship that are
manifested by the extremely delicate manipulation of objects
so small in their size and yet so elaborately and carefully
finished, it is impossible to demonstrate their characteristics
otherwise than by reference to the objects themselves,
which must be seen and closely studied before the beauty
of their forms and the delicacy of their finish can be
adequately appreciated. These qualities are necessarily
less apparent in the larger examples, but in many of the
smaller they are present in a more remarkable manner than
in any other class of the products of human handicraft,
ancient or modern, which are not of the nature of jewels or
articles of personal adornment. So obviously is this the
case that they are not unfrequently mounted and worn as
pendants in necklaces, and in other adaptations of modern
jewellery. No such fact is without its significance. These
products of the Age of Stone were made for use, and not
for ornament, and yet they exhibit qualities of form and
workmanship which give them an ornamental character,
and thus enable them to be fitly associated with the pro-
ductions of the decorative art of modern times.

I have already drawn attention to the fact that the typical
form of the stone axe is a form which is specially suited
to the properties of the material and the purposes of the
implement. Looking at the specialty of form which has
been given to the axe of iron, in view of the special pro-
perties of the material, and their adaptation to the special
purposes of the instrument, no one would hesitate to
recognise it as a product of culture. And looking at the
peculiar specialty of form which has been given to the
implement of stone, and given to it also in view of the

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 381

peculiar properties of its material, I cannot have any
hesitation in recognising it also as a product of culture.
In doing this I pronounce no judgment on the relative
quality of the varieties of culture that have produced the
two kinds of implements. But if it be a legitimate deduc-
tion that the special adaptation of the form of the imple-
ment when fashioned in the one material implies culture,
the same deduction follows as a necessary consequence from
the special adaptation of its form when fashioned in the
other material. I am not now instituting a comparison of
the relative efficiency of the implements as between that
fashioned in the one material and that fashioned in the
other. I speak merely of the facts that the employment
of the one material established a certain typical form
for the implement; that the use of the other material
established another typical form for the same implement ;
and that these two different results — each consequent on
the use of a different material establishing a special adapta-
tion of form — were products of culture existing in the
people using the materials. Reviewing the whole pheno-
mena of the Stone Age as these are manifested in Scot-
land, we find them affording evidences of capacity and
culture in the individual, associated with evidences of
civilisation in the community. We find their weapons and
ornaments fashioned in forms that combine beauty of out-
line with symmetry and grace of proportion. We find the
workmanship of the best examples faultless, the polish
perfect, and the edge as regular and finely drawn from the
face of the instrument as it is possible to make it with the
aid of machinery and scientific appliances. The application
of intellect and energy to the perfection of the art of work-
ing in stone is effected in directions that are different from
those adopted by workers in metals ; and therefore the
culture of the lapidary is a culture which is not the same

382 SCOTLAND IX PAGAN TIMES.

as the culture of the founder or the smith. But it would
be manifestly absurd to say that the application of intellect
and handicraft to the perfection of an art is culture when
it is directed to one material, and is not culture when it
is directed to another — that culture may l»e manifested
in bronze and iron, and silver and gold, but not in bone or
ivory, or jet or stone.

It would be equally absurd to say that the application
of intellect and experience to the perfection of an art is
culture when it is directed to one method of operation, and
is not culture when it is directed to another method; in
other words, that it is culture which is manifested in the
working of stone by grinding, and that it is not culture which
is manifested in the working cf the same material by chipping.
The generalisation which leads to a conclusion that grinding or
polishing an implement of stone implies higher capacity and
more advanced culture than is implied in the formation of an
implement by simple chipping, is completely at variance with
the most obvious facts regarding the nature and character of
chipped and polished implements of stone. The methods
of finishing the surface and trimming the edges of many of
these chipped implements are the results of reflection and
experience applied to the nature of the implement itself, and
the qualities of the material of which it is made. There are
certain classes of implements of flint which were never
ground smooth on the surface, or sharpened to a smoothly
ground edge, because the chipped surface and the trimmed
edge were better adapted to their purpose. Some varieties
of unground, unpolished implements, wholly fashioned and
finished by chipping alone, belong not only to the most
advanced period of the Stone Age, but were used long into,
and apparently throughout, the Age of Bronze.

The rudeness which is the result of incapacity, and the
rudeness which is the result of skill and calculation, in

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 383

certain cases, may closely resemble each other ; but in draw-
ing conclusions as to the capacity or incapacity of the work-
man from the mere rudeness of workmanship there must be
discrimination. In the finer forms of these chipped imple-
ments it is manifest that their rudeness is the result of
processes carefully adapted to the properties of the material,
and performed with a dexterity only to be acquired by
practice and experience. That their surfaces are always
unsmoothed, while other implements found with them are
finely polished, is evidence that the absence of polish in them
is the result of intention, and not of incapacity. And that
this abstention from all effort to produce a smoother finish
of surface and outline than that which results from the
merely constructional process ought rather to be commended
as a merit than censured as a defect in the workman's culture,
seems plain from the fact that the form, when thus finished,
possesses a character of fitness and beauty which is uni-
versally acknowledged. This character is the result of a
single process, perfected to a pitch of delicacy and refinement
which is now unattainable. That process, which the ancient
workers invented and brought to such perfection, is the very
process which scientific investigation has now shown to be
the most suitable to the qualities of the material they em-
ployed. This material was selected by them in preference
to all others, and we cannot doubt that it was so selected on
account of its special suitability to the purpose in view,
although it is not abundant, and must always have been
difficult to procure, in Scotland. Is it possible, then, to con-
clude that there is no evidence of culture in such manifesta-
tions of knowledge and skill — in such adaptations of means
and materials to definite ends and purposes ? It is doubtless
true that the culture which they may indicate must neces-
arily have differed from the culture of the Bronze Age,
as the Bronze Age culture must necessarily have differed

384 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

from that of the Iron Age ; but it seeins equally undeniable
that whatever may be the amount of its difference from these
or from existing varieties of culture, the evidence which has
been adduced is relevant and sufficient to prevent the con-
clusion that the members of the Stone Age communities were
destitute of capacity and devoid of culture.

Again, when we consider the aggregates of individuals in
whom this culture existed, we find them possessing social
organisations sufficient for the construction of works of

enormous magnitude. We find them exhibiting in these
constructions a common agreement strong enough to control
the general expression of the form and character of their
sepulchral monuments over an area so wide as from Caithness
to Cornwall These vast sepulchral constructions, which are
necessarily the work of aggregates, are thus in their nature
and significance essentially evidences of civilisation. The
manner of its expression is doubtless different from that
which now prevails, and the man who now subscribes his
guineas to the public memorial of a leading citizen removed
by death would then have performed the same duty by
adding stones to his cairn. But it is the outward form of
the act alone which differs ; its inward significance remains
the same. As time rolls on and fashions change with
the ever-increasing complexities of social organisation, the
methods of expression may be altered or may be improved ;
but will any one say that the moral feeling and sense of
public duty which then found expression in the manner of
the time were less moral and less dutiful than those which
find expression now in the manner of our time, or that the
thing signified in the erection of a Stone Age cairn is not
essentially the same as that which is signified in the erection
of a statue or a modern monument ?

In this man of the Stone Age, whose capacity, culture,
and civilisation are thus made dimly visible to us by the

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 385

relics of his life and the memorials of his dead — this maker
of finely formed and admirably finished tools and implements
in stone — this builder of great sepulchral monuments that
are completely structural, we have reached the typical
representative of primeval man in Scotland. There is no
evidence of the existence within our area of any repre-
sentative type of man of higher antiquity or of lower culture
than this. I have chosen to lead up to the consideration
of his condition and culture by carrying the investigation
back from the historic to the prehistoric, from the
well known to the less known, from the comparatively
recent to the regions of extreme antiquity. I chose this
method because it seemed that by thus proceeding from
conditions that are already familiar to us, we might be
enabled to appreciate more justly the significance of con-
ditions that are unfamiliar to our experience, and to perceive
more clearly that in thus unravelling the manifold compli-
cations of the interlinked successions of types and systems
that bind the ages together, we may be tracing gradations
of advancement from civilisation to civilisation, and from
culture to culture. It is true that we possess no means of
converting the significance of these early manifestations
into equivalents of the culture and civilisation which now
exist. But if it be also true — as all experience shows that
it is true — that the types and systems of the present give
birth to those of the future, and were themselves begotten
of the past, it follows that the early culture and civilisa-
tion were but younger states or stages of those which now
exist ; and, thus regarding them, I cannot but conclude that
they were younger states or stages of the highest as well as
of the lowest of the modern forms.

And now, looking back over the way we have traversed
together, and having regard both to the manner and to the
25

386 SCOTLAND IN PAGAN TIMES.

results of the investigation in which we have been engaged,
I may say that I shall have failed in one of its principal
objects if it has not been demonstrated that it may be
possible from purely scientific materials, by purely scientific
methods, to construct a logical, though not a chronological,
history of culture and civilisation within a given area
sufficiently wide to comprehend a series of representative
types — that the logical history thus established deals with the
succession of types, and the stages of Culture, but does not
deal with the determination of dates, or the measurement of
the duration of periods, which being the peculiar products of
record, pertain exclusively to the province of chronological
history — that as the conditions and phenomena of man's
existence in one region cannot be taken as necessarily those
of another, these conditions and phenomena must be ascer-
tained by direct investigation for a wide series of separate
areas before there can exist a scientific basis for the in-
ductions of comparative Archaeology — and that the historic
and the prehistoric stages of human existence within the
same area do not differ necessarily in the essential nature of
their conditions and phenomena, although there is necessarily
a radical difference in the manner in which these conditions
and phenomena are presented to our intelligence.

If this has been successfully demonstrated, the method
of the demonstration will also have disclosed the paramount
importance of form and decoration in the determination of
type ; and the significance of systems of ornament as afford-
ing indications of the conditions of culture by their character,
and determining the sequence of these conditions by their de-
velopment. The disclosure of that significance will also have
shown that it may be possible to deal with the ornament of
the prehistoric ages as an index of culture in much the same
manner as the student of culture might deal with language
and literature as supplying materials for his deductions

IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 387

with respect to the historic period, because the sequences of
the systems of decoration are found to follow the same order
as the sequences of the forms and materials to which the
decoration is applied. But most of all, I hope it may have
been made clear that it is not the knowledge of the various
dates of the different specimens, but the knowledge of their
types — not the knowledge of their precise uses, but the
knowledge of their precise areas — not the knowledge of the
measure of antiquity that may belong to them, but of the
quality of the culture they indicate, that are the primary
objects of their investigation.

Besides these more general indications, it may have
become evident to those who have followed the whole of the
four courses of these Lectures, that, taken together, they are
parts of one continuous demonstration, the outcome of which
is that Scotland has an Archseology — disclosing a succession
of manifestations of culture and phases of civilisation
peculiar to her own area ; and that she must therefore of
necessity create and maintain her own school of investiga-
tion.

INDEX.

ACHKINLOCH, Caithness, stone-setting at

133.
Achnacree, Argyllshire, chambered

cairn of, 268.

Achtertyre, Elgin, hoard of bronze ob-
jects found at, 146.
Affleck, stone axe found at, 332.
Alloa, urns and gold arm-rings found

at, 62.
Amber, beads of,in grave-mound at Kelly-

thorpe, 18.
Analysis of bronze implements, etc.,

147, 166.
Applegarth, Dumfriesshire, bronze axe

found at, 194, 196.
Ardlair, Aberdeenshire, urns found in

stone circle at, 110.
Ardoyne, Aberdeenshire, urns found in

stone circle at, 109.
Argyllshire, chambered cairns of, 268.

gold armlets found in, 213.

Arrow-heads of Hint, 356-362.
Arrow-shafts, manufacture of, 363.
Arthur's Seat, bronze swords, etc.,

found on, 143.
Auchentaggart, Dumfriesshire, gold

diadem found at, 223.
Auquhorthies, Kincardineshire, urns

found in stone circle at, 114.
Australia, stone axe in its handle from,

353.

BADENTOY, Kincardineshire, stone circle

at, 113.
Balbirnie, Fife, urns found at, 72,

116.
Balblair, Sutherlandshire, urn and

bronze blade found at, 25.
Balcalk, Tealing, urn and necklace of

jet beads found at, 52.
Balcarry, Wigtownshire, hoard of bronze

objects found at, 163.
Balmaclellan, stone axe found at, 319.
Balmuick, Comrie, urn with side-handle

found at, 82.
Bantf, urn and gold rings found near,

61.

Bannockburn Moss, bronze battle-axe

found in, 188.

Barhullion, Wigtownshire, bronze spear-
head found at, 182.
Barnfauld, Beith, urns found at, 43.
Barras (Little), stone axe found at,

345.

Barrows, breaking open of, in search of
treasure, 278.

long, of England, the, 265.

Battle Moss, Thrumster, Caithness, stone

setting at, 130.

Belhaven, East Lothian, bronze spear-
head found at, 182.
Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, gold armlet

found at, 218.
Bell's Mills, Midlothian, hoard of bronze

objects found at, 160.
Benachie, Aberdeenshire, urns found at,

47.

Birsley, Tranent, urns found at, 70.
Blairgowrie, Perthshire, urns found at,

43.
Blindmill, Rothie, urn and necklace

found at, 53.
Boar, remains of, found with a burial,

79.
Bone, hollow cylinder or button of,

found in an urn at Alness, 50.
Bonnyside, Stirlingshire, gold armlet

found at, 210.
Bookan, Stennis, Orkney, chambered

cairn at, 291.
Boring tools of flint, 373.
Bowerhouses, Dunbar, urns and bronze

blades found at, 26.
Bronze Age, definition of the, 2.

ornamentation of the, 2, 3.

typical features of the, 2.

Bronze, analysis of, 147, 166.

BRONZE IMPLEMENTS, etc.—
Anvil, 204.
Arm-rings (annular, solid) —

From Crawford, 59.

Kinneff, 60.

Ratho, 60.

Stobo, 58.

390

INDEX.

BRONZE IMPLKMKNTS, etc.—
Arm-rings (penannular) —

From Achtertyre, 146, 148.

Killm, 152.

Poolewe, 162.

Rehill, 160.

Axe* (flanged) —

Applegarth, 194, 196.

Bafcarry, 163.

Cree, 193, 195.

Dams, 196.

Glenbuck, 1P7.

Greenlees, 193, 195.

Largs, 197.

Axes (flat)—

From Colleonard, 166.

Culzean, 167.

Fortrie of Balnoon, 167.

Innermessan, 190.

Lawhead, 192.

Nairn, 194.

Sluie, 163.

Tonuerghie, 167.

Axes (socketed)—

From Achtertyre, 146.

Bell's Mills, 160.

Bowerhouses, 26.

Dalduff, 154.

Forfar, 161.

Gospeftie, 147.

Highfteld, 153.

Inschoch, 153.

Killin, 151.

Knockandinaize, 198.

Poolewe, 162.

Rehill, 160.

Strath, 198.

Battle-Axe—

From Bannock burn, 188.
Blades (knife or dagger, thin, tri
angular) —

From Burreldales, 23.

Collessie, 8.

Cleigh, 13.

Drumlanrick, 13.

Kellythorpe, 18.

Linlathen, 12.

Shuttlefield, 21.

Stobshiel, 18.

Tuack, 102.

Blades (oval, curved, and socketed)—

From Sleat, 145.

Wester Ord, 146.

Blades (small, oval, or bifid)—

From Balblair, 26.

Bowerhouses, 26.

Kinleith, 27.

Lawpark, 36.

Lierabol, 22.

Magdalen Bridge, 27.

Newbigging, 23.

Rogart, 24.

Rouiidway, 17.

Shanwell, 38.

BROSZB IMPLEMENTS, etc.—
Bracelet* —

From Melfort, 57.
Brooch —

From Gogar, 144.
Caldrons —

From Carlingwark, 205.

Dalduff; 154.

Duddingston, 142.

Kincardine Moss, 205.

Poolewe, 162.

CUnh

From Burreldale MOM, 200.

Kingoldrum, 200.

Torre, 200.

Daggers —

From Galloway, 178.

Gretna, 1/6.

Kilrie, 176.

Kingarth, 155.

Pitkaithley, 176.

Portmoak, 179.

Whitehaugh, 180.

Whiteleys, 177.

Fish-hooks—

From Glenluce, 302.
Gouges (socketed) —

From Killin, 151.

Torran, 148, 149.

the Tay, 202.

Mountings (annular rings, hollow)-

Frora Grosvenor Crescent, 140.

Inschock, 153.

Killin, 153.

Pins—

From Balcalk, 52.

Grosvenor Crescent, 140.

Sleat, 145.

Tarves, 142.

Tormore, 98.

Scabbard-ends —

From Cauldhame, 144.

Gogar, 143.

Legertwood, 155.

Tarves, 142.

Sickles—

From Edengerach, 202.

Errol, 203.

Shields—

From Lugtonridge, 155.

Yetholm, 156, 159.

Spear-heads —

From Achtertyre, 146.

Barhullion, 182.

Belhaven, 182.

Cauldhame, 145.

Craigton, 184.

Crawford, 183.

Dean Water, 184.

- Denhead, 180.

Duddingston, 142.

Forfar, 162.

Gospertie, 147.

Highfield, 153.

INDEX.

391

BRONZE IMPLEMENTS, etc.—
Spear-heads —

From Inschock, 153.

Killin, 150.

Legertwood, 155.

Linton, 183.

Merton Hall, 183.

— Sleat, 145.

Torran, 148, 149.

Swords —

From Arthur's Seat, 143.

Cauldhame, 144.

Dalduff, 154.

Duddingston, 142.

Gogar, 143.

Grosvenor Crescent, 139, 140.

Jacksbank, 155.

Keith House, 173.

Killin, 149.

Kirkoswald, 175.

Legertwood, 155.

Newburgh, 173.

Perth, 173.

Shuna, 155.

Sleat, 145.

South Uist, 171.

Tarves, 140.

Trumpet —

From Coilsfield, 189.
Broomend of Iiiverurie, urns found at,

75.
Brownhill, Ayrshire, stone axe found

at, 348.
Bruan, Caithness, chambered cairn at,

258.

Buckie, Banffshire, urn found at, 80.
Bucklyvie, Fife, urns found at, 44.
Burials, absence of certain forms of

bronze implements in, 168.
Burray, Orkney, chambered cairn in,

290.
Burreldale Moss, Aberdeenshire, bronze

chisel found at, 200.

Burreldales, Aberdeenshire, urns and
bronze blade found at, 23.

CAIRNS of Bronze Age type (uncham-
bered) —
At Blindmill, 54.

Carnwath, 87.

Cleigh, 12.

Collessie, 3.

Craig-dhu, 46.

Crawford, 58.

Eddertoun, 90.

Freelield, 78.

Glenforsa, 14.

Kennyshillock, 86.

Kilmartin, 88.

Linlathen, 10.

Monikie, 66.

Stenton, 92.

Stobo, 57.

CAIRNS of Stone Age type (cham-
bered)—
At Achnacree, 268.

Bookan, 291.

Bruan, 258.

Burray, 290.

Callernish. 191.

. Canister, 240, 250.

Clava, 300.

Garrywhin, 249.

Kilchoan, 273.

Largie, 272.

Maeshowe, 274.

Ormiegill, 244.

Papa Westray, 281, 289.

Quanterness, 287.

Quoyness, 284.

Rhinavie, 260.

Skelpick, 263.

Unstan, 292.

Wideford, 288.

Yarhouse, 230-258.

Cairns, chambered, geographical dis-
tribution of, 280.
Cairnsmuir, Peeblesshire, gold armlets

(twisted) found at, 217.
Caithness, chambered sepulchral cairns

of, 230.
California, arrow-head of chert in the

shaft from, 361.

Callernish, Lewis, stone circle at, 119.
Campbeltown, Argyllshire, moulds for
bronze spear-heads found at, 186.

stone axes found at, 323.

Camster, Caithness, chambered cairns
at, 240, 250-

stone-setting at, 129.

Carlingwark Loch, Kirkcudbright, bronze

caldron found in, 205.
Carmichael, Lanarkshire, gold armlets

found at, 211.
Carnwath Moor, Lanarkshire, urn and

sculptured cist-cover found at, 87.
Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire, urns found

in stone circle at, 111.
Cauldhame, Brechin, bronze swords, etc. ,

found at, 144.
Chapelton, Ardrossan, stone axe found

at, 309.
Clava, Strathnairn, chambered cairns at,

300.
Claycrop, Kirkinner, stone axe found

at, 311.

Cleigh, Lochwell, cairn at, explored, 12.
Cleughhead, stone axe found at, 320.
Clyth, Caithness, stone-setting at, 131.
Coilsfield, Ayrshire, bronze trumpet
found at, 189.

urn and sculptured cist-cover

found at, 87.
Coll, stone axe or hammer found in.

308.

Colleonard, Banffshire, hoard of bronze
axes found at, 166.

392

INDEX.

Colleane, Fife, excavation of a cairn

at, 8.

Corennie, flaking tool of flint from, 874.
Conbie Moss, Berwickshire, hoard of

bronze objects found in, 155.
Coul, Inlay, gold armlets (penannular)

found at, 213.
Coulter, Lanarkshire, gold diadem found

at, 222.
Craigdhu, North Queensferry, urns found

at, 46.

Crawford, Lanarkshire, bronze spear-
head found at, 188.
urn and bronze arm -rings

found at, 68.
Cree, Wigtownshire, bronze axe found in

the Moss of, 198, 195.
Crichie, Kintore, urns found in stone

circle at, 104, 107.
Croglin, Cumberland, mould for casting

bronze spear-heads found at, 187.
Cromdale, Inverness-shire, gold armlet

found at, 214.
Cruden, Aberdeenshire, grave-mound at,

17.
Culbin Sands, arrow-heads of flint from,

856, 358-360.

knives of flint from, 368.

Culzean, Ayrshire, hoard of bronze axes

found at, 167.
Cunzierton, stone axe found at, 344.

DALACHIB, Banflkhire, urn and gold arm-
ring found at, 63.

Dalduff, Ayrshire, hoard of bronze ob-
jects found at, 153.

Dalmeny, stone axe found at, 388.

Dalmore, Alness, urns found at, 48.

Dairy, Court-Hill of, urn found nt, 77.

knives of flint from, 367.

Dnlrymple, Charles EL, excavations in
stone circles in Aberdeenshire by,
101.

Dams, Balbirnie, Fife, bronze axe found
at, 196.

Darnhall, Peeblesshire, urn found at, 82.

Daviot, stone axes found at, 325.

Denhead, Coupar-Anpus, bronze spear-
head found at, 180.

Drem. Haddingtonshire, urn found at,
78.

Drimmie Wood, Balbirnie, urns fonnd
at, 71.

Druids, not associated with stone circles
till seventeenth century, 136*.

Drumour, stone axes found at, 324.

Duddingston Loch, Edinburgh, hoard of
bronze objects dredged up in, 142.

Dumbarton, gold armlets found near,
209.

D unbar, urn found at, 47.

Dundee, stone axe found near, 384, 838.

Duns Castle, stone axe fonnd near, 315.

EDDBKTOUN, Ross-shire, urn found in a
cairn at, 90.

Edengerach, Aberdeenshire, bronze sickle
found at, 202.

Ellon, arrow-head of flint from, 360.

Errol, Perthshire, bronze sickle found
at, 203.

Ervie, stone axe, showing mark of han-
dle, from, 854.

FARDKXRKOCH, stone axe found at, 314.

Flaking tools of flint, 378, 374.

Flint, arrow-heads of, found with Bronze

Age burials, 171.
Flint-working, and ancient factories of

flint implements, 378.
Flowerburn, strike-light of flint and

pyrites found at, 376.
Fochabers, stone axes found at, 330.
Fordoun, flaking tool of flint found

at, 374.

knife in flint from, 370.

stone axe from, 333.

Forfar, hoard of bronze objects found

at, 160.
Fortrie of Balnoon, Banflshire, bronze

axes found at, 167.
Freefleld, Inverkindie, urn fonnd in a

cairn at, 76.

Friars Carse, stone axe found at, 316.
Fullarton, Kintore, urns found in stone

circle at, 108.
Fyrish, Ross-shire, urn and wrist-guard

of stone found at, 16.
Fyvie, arrow-head of flint still in the

shaft from, 362.

GABOON, method of hafting flat axes of

iron in the, 191.
Galloway, gold armlets found in, 213,

214.
Garden, Professor, early notice of stone

circles by, 135.
Garrywhin, Caithness, chambered cairn

at, 247.
Geisboden, arrow-head of flint still in

the shaft from, 362.
Genoch, Ayrshire, urns found at, 45.
Gilmerton, stone axe found at, 336.
Glenballoch, Blairgowrie, urns found in

stone circle at, 111.
Glenbuck, Ayrshire, bronze axe fonnd

at, 197.

Glenforsa, Mull, urns found at, 14.
Glenhead, Doune, urn and stone hammer

found at, 88.
Glenluc?, Wigtownshire, arrow-heads of

flint from, 856, 357, 358, 859, 360.

bronze fish-hooks found at, 202.

saws of flint from, 372.

scraper of flint from, 376.

stone axe found at, 345.

INDEX.

393

Gogar, Midlothian, bronze sword, etc.,

found at, 143.

GOLD, ORNAMENTS, ETC., OF —
Armlets (solid, penannular) — '

From Alloa, 62.

Argyllshire, 213.

Banff, 61.

Bonny side, 210.

Carmichael, 211, 212.

Coul, 213.

Cromdale, 214.

Dalachie, 62.

Dumbartonshire, 209.

Gallow Hill, St. Vigeans, 211.

• Galloway, 213, 214.

Gullane, 213.

Hebrides, the, 213.

Kilmaillie, 213.

Laufine, 214.

Largiebeg, 63.

Ormidale, 210.

Shieldhill, 213.

Sunderland, Islay, 64.

Armlets (twisted, fillets, or rods)—

From Belhelvie, 218.

Cairnsmuir, 217.

Coulter, 219.

Largo, 215.

Lochbroom, 219.

Penicuik, 221.

Rannoch, 219.

Slateford, 220.

Urquhart, 217.

Diadems —

From Auchentaggart, 223.

Coulter, 222.

Orton, 66.

Discs —

From Huntiscarth, 67.
Mountings of dagger-hilt —

From Collessie, 9.

Monikie, 66.

Pendants or ear-rings —

From Orton, 65.
Rings (hollow, triangular in section)—

From Dumbartonshire, 210.

Gogar, 144.

Rings (small, penannular) —

From Banff, 61.

Strond, 214.

Gospertie, Fife, hoard of bronze objects

found at, 147.
Greenlees, Berwickshire, bronze axe

found at, 193, 195.
Gretna, Dumfriesshire, bronze dagger

found at, 176.
Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh, hoard

of bronze objects found at, 139.
Gullane, Haddingtonshire, gold armlets

found at, 213.
scraper of flint from, 376.

HIGHFIELD, Dingwall, hoard of bronze
objects found at, 153.

Horn, spoon or ladle of, found in an

urn, 76.
Huntiscarth, Orkney, gold discs and

amber beads found at, 67.

INNERMESSAN, Wigtownshire, bronze axe

found at, 190.
Inschock, Nairn, hoard of bronze objects

found at, 153.
Inscriptions, Runic, in Maeshowe,

Orkney, 277.

JACKSBANK, Glenbervie, bronze swords
found at, 155.

KEITH HOUSE, Midlothian, bronze sword

found at, 173.
Kellythorpe, near Driflield, grave-mound

at, 18.
Kennyshillock, Urquhart, Elginshire,

urn found at, 86.
Kilchoan, Argyllshire, chambered cairn

at, 273.
Killin, hoard of bronze objects found

at, 149.

Killucken, Tyrone, urns found at, 48.
Kilmaillie, Inverness-shire, gold armlets

(penaunular) found at, 213.
Kilmartin, Argyllshire, sculptured cist

slabs found at, 88, 89.
Kilrie, Kinghorn, bronze dagger found

at, 177.
Kincardine, the Moss of, Stirlingshire,

bronze caldron found in, 205.
Kingarth, Bute, bronze daggers found

at, 155.
Kingcausie, Kincardineshire, urns found

in stone circle at, 113.
Kingsbarns Law, Crail, urns found at,

83.
Kingoldrum, Forfarshire, bronze chisel

found at, 200.
Kinleith, Currie, bronze blade found at,

27.
Kinneff. Kincardineshire, urn and bronze

arm-rings found at, 59.
Kintore, knife of flint from, 370.
Kirkcowan, stone axe found at, 319.
Kirklauchline, stone axe found at, 346.
Kirkoswald, Ayrshire, bronze sword

found at, 175.

Knives of flint and other stone, 366-371.
Knockandmaize, Wigtownshire, bronze

axe found at, 198.

LAMBERTON MOOR, grinding-stone for

stone axes found at, 349.
Lanfine, Ayrshire, arrow-heads of flint

from, 357, 358.

boring tool of flint from, 373.

gold armlet (penannular) found at,

214.

394

INDEX.

Largie, Kilmartin, Argyllshire, cham-
bered cairns at, 271 .

Largiebeg, Arrnn, arm -ring of gold found
at, 63.

Largo, Fifeshire, gold arntlets or neck-
lets (twisted) found at, 215.

Largs, Ayrshire, bronze axe (flanged)
found at, 197.

Lawhead, Pentlands, bronze axe found
at, 192.

Law park, St Andrews, urns and bronze
blades found at, 36.

Lesraurdie, Banflshire, urns found at, 73.

Lierabol, Sutherlandshire, stone-settings
at, 1S2.

urn and bronze blade found at,

22.

Linlathen, Forfarshire, excavation of a
cairn at, 10.

Linton, Roxburghshire, bronze spear-
head found at, 183.

Lochbroom, Ross-shire, gold armlets
found at, 219.

Lngtonridge, Beith, bronze shields found
at, 155.

Lunanbead, Forfar, urn and necklace
found at, 54.

MACADAM, DR. STEVENSON, analyses of

bronze implements, etc., by, 147, 166.
Machermore, spear-head of flint from,

355.
Maeshowe, Orkney, chambered cairn of,

•274.
Magdalen Bridge, Midlothian, urns and

bronze blade found at, 27.
Mauchrie Moor, Arran, stone circles

excavated at, 97-100.
Maysmore, stone axe found at, 321.
Meft, Urquhart, stone axe found at, 333.
Melfort, Argyllshire, necklace and

bronze bracelets found at, 57.
Merton Hall, Wigtownshire, bronze

spearhead found at, 183.
Monikie, Forfarshire, urn and gold

ornament found at, 66.
Montblairy, Newton of, urn found in

stone circle at, 115.
Montfode, Ardrossan, stone axe found

at, 310.
Murleywell, Forfarshire, urn found at,

84.

NAIRN, bronze axe found at, 194.
Newbigging, Penicuik, urns and bronze

blade found at, 23.
New Guinea, stone axe« in their handles

from, 851, 352.
Newburgh, bronze sword found in the

Tay at, 173.
Ninewells, Forfarshire, urn found at, 85.

OBAN, Argyllshire, urn found at, 85.
Orkney, chambered cairns of, 274.

Ormidale, Arran, gold armlets found at,

210.
Onuiegill, Caithness, chambered cairn

at, 24}.
Orton, Fochabers, ear-rings and M»Am

of gold found at, 65.
Oykel, Kyle of, Sutherlandshire, bronze

anvil found at, 204.

PAPA WESTRAT, Orkney, chambered

cairns in, 281, 289.
Park hill, A U-rdeenshire, urns found at,

79.
Pendrith, Cumberland, urn found at,

Penicuik, Midlothian, gold collar or

girdle found at, 221.
Perth, bronze sword found in the Tay

at, 172.
Pitkaithley, Perthshire, bronze dagger

found at, 176.
Poolewe, Ross-shire, hoard of bronze

objects found at, 162.
Portmoak, Fife, bronze halberd found

at, 179.
Portpatrick, stone axe found at, 309,

319.
: Prieston, Ayrshire, stone axe found at,

316.

QDANTKRNKSS, Orkney, chambered cairn

at, 287.
Quarryford, East Lothian, urn found

at, 72.
Quoyneas, Sanday, Orkney, chambered

cairn at, 284,

RANNOCH, Moor of, gold armlet (twisted)

found at, 219.
Rayne, Aberdeenshire, urns found in

stone circle at, 109.
Rehill, Aberdeenshire, hoard of bronze

objects found at, 160.
Rbinavie, Strathnaver, chambered cairns

at, 260.
Rogart, Sutherlandshire, bronze blade

found at, 24.

Ronaldsay, Orkney, urn found at, 47.
Rosskeen, Ross-shire, stone moulds for

bronze axes found at, 198.
Ronndway Hill, Devizes, grave-mound

at, 17.

Rousay, knife of flint from, 366.
Runic inscriptions in Maeshowe, Ork-
ney, 277.

SAWS OF FLINT, 872.

Scrapers of flint, 375, 377.

Seamill, West Kilbride, urn found at,

73.
Shan well, Kinross-shire, urns and bronze

blade found at, 37.
Shapinshay, arrow-bead of flint from,

359.

INDEX.

395

Sheath for a bronze dagger found at
Collessie, Fife, 9.

found at Kellythorpe, 18.

Sheriff-flats, Lanarkshire, urns found at,

39.

Shetland, knives of porphyry, etc., from,
370.

stone axes found in, 308, 327, 340,

341.
Shieldhill, Muckart, gold armlets found

at, 213.
Shuna, Island of, Argyllshire, bronze

swords found in, 155.
Shuttlefield, Lockerbie, urn and bronze

blade found at, 21.
Skelpick, Strathnaver, chambered cairn

at, 263.

Skye, stone wrist-guard found in a grave-
mound in, 17.
Slap, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, urn found

at, 77.
Slateford, Midlothian, gold armlet found

at, 220.
Sleat, Skye, bronze sword, etc., found

at, 145.
Sluie, Morayshire, hoard of bronze

objects found at, 163.
Smith, Dr. R. Angus, cairn at Cleigh
explored by, 12.

cairn at Achnacree explored by,

268.
Solway Moss, stone axe in its handle

from, 353.
Spoon, or Ladle, of ox-horn found in an

urn at Inverurie, 76.
Stannergate, Dundee, urn found at, 85.
Stennis, Orkney, stone circles at, 118,

119.
Stenton, Haddingtonshire, urn and stone

implements found at, 92, 93.
Stobo, Peeblesshire, arm-rings of bronze

found at, 58.
Stobshiel, Haddingtonshire, urn and

bronze blade found at, 19.
STONE CIRCLES —
At Ardlair, 110.

Ardoyne, 109.

Auquhorthies, 114.

Badentoy, 113.

Balbirnie, 116.

Callernish, 119.

Castle Fraser, 110.

Clava, 300.

Crichie, 104.

Fullarton, 108.

Glenballoch, 111.

Kingcausie, 113.

Montblairy, 115.

Rayue, 108.

Stennis, 118, 119.

Sunhoney, 109.

Tormore, 97-100.

Tuack, 101.

Stone Circles of Norway and Sweden, 124.

STONE IMPLEMENTS, etc.—
Arrowheads of flint (including spear-
heads)—

From Bookan, 292.

Cruden, 17.

Culbin Sands, 356-360.

Ellon, 360.

Fordoun, 357.

Fyvie, 362.

Garrywhin, 249.

Glenluce, 356-360.

Lanfine, 357, 358.

Largie, 272.

Machermore, 355.

Ormiegill, 246.

Shapinsay, 359.

Torish, 56.

Unstan, 298.

Urquhart, 355, 356, 357.

Axes, imperf orate (including adzes) —

From Aberdeenshire, 324.

Affleck, 332.

Barras (Little), 345.

Berwickshire, 338.

Brownhill, 348.

Buchan, 335.

Caithness, 338.

Campbeltown, 323.

Cunningsburgh, 340.

Cunzierton, 344.

Dalmeny, 338.

Daviot, 325.

Drumour, 324.

Dundee, 334, 338.

Ericht, 343.

Ervie, 354.

Fochabers, 330.

Fordoun, 333.

Gilmerton, 336.

Glenluce, 345.

Grimaster, 340.

Kirklauchline, 346.

Meft, 333.

Shetland, 341, 342.

Slains, 337.

Solvray Moss, 353.

Stirlingshire, 346.

Tingwall, 327.

Axes, perforated (including ham-
mers)—

From Balmaclellan, 319.

Chapelton, 309.

Claycrop, 311.

Cleughhead, 320.

Coll, 308.

Crichie, 106.

Doune, 83.

Duns Castle, 315.

Fardenreoch, 314.

Friars Carse, 316.

Kirkcowan, 319.

Machermore, 318.

Maysmore, 321.

Montfode, 310.

396

INDEX.

STONE IMPLEMENTS, etc.—
Azes,perforated(includinghammers) —

From Newburgh. 818, 315.

Ormicgill, 246, 320.

Portpstrick, 309, 319.

Prieston, 816.

Shetland, 308.

— Torhouskie, 818.

Urquhart, 821.

Beads (amber or jet) —

From Balcalk, 53.

Blindmill, £3.

Dalmore, 51.

Huntiscarth, 67.

Lananhead, 54.

Melfort, 57.

Taytteld, 54.

TorUh, 56.

Yarhouse, 240.

Boring Tools (of flint)—

From Culbin Sands, 373.

Lantine, 373.

Flaking Tools (of flint)—

From Corennie, 374.

Fordoun, 374.

Unstan, 299.

Grinding-stones and Whetstones—

From Lamberton Moor, 850.

Stenton, 93.

Stoneykirk, 350.

Knives (of flint, porphyry, etc.) —

From Balcalk, 53.

Camster, 253.

Cruden, 17.

Culbin Sands, 368.

Dalmore, 50.

Dairy, 367.

Fordoun, 369, 370.

Hatton, 368.

Kintore, 369, 370.

Kilchoan, 273.

Largie 272.

Lunanhead, 53.

Ormiegill, 246.

Rousay, 366.

Shetland, 370, 871.

Stenton, 93.

Strachur, 369.

Urquhart, 369.

Unstan, 298.

Saws (of flint)—

From Glenluce, 872.
Scrapers (of flint) —

From Glenluce, 377.

Gullane, 377.

Urquhart, 375, 377.

Strike-light (flint and pyrites)—

From Flowerburn, 3/6.
Wrist-guards (of polished stone)—

From Cruden, 17.

Dalmore, 51.

— Devizes, 17.

Fyrish, 15.

Glenforsa, 15.

STOKK IMPLEMENTS, etc.—
Wrist-guards (of polished stone) —
From Kellythonw, 18.

Skye, 17.

STONE-SETTINGS—

At Achkinloch, Caithness, 133.

Battle Moss, Thrumster, 180.

Camster, Caithness. 129.

Clyth, Caithness, 181.

Lierabol, Kildonan, 132.

Yarhouse, Caithness, 126.

Stoneykirk, grinding-stone for stone

axes found at, 350.
Strachur, knife of flint from, 369.
Strath, Skye, bronze axe found at, 198.
Strike-lights of flint, 376.
Strond, Harris, gold rings found at, 214.
Stuart, Dr. John, cairn at Linlathen

examined by, 10.
Sunderland, Islay, arm-rings of gold

found at, 64.

Sunhoney, Midmar, urns found in stone
circle at, 109.

TARVES, Abenleenshire, hoard of bronze

objects found at, 141.
Tay, River, bronze swords, gouge and

sickle, found in, 173, 201, 202.
stone axes found in the,

313, 315.
Tayfield, Newport, urn and necklace

found at, 54.

Tealing, Forfarshire, urns found at, 91.
Tents Moor, Fife, urn found at, 80, 81.
Tin, rings of, found at Achtertyre,

Elgin, 146, 147.

Tingwall, stone axes found at, 327, 329.
Tonderghie, Wigtownshire, hoard of

bronze axes found at, 167.
Torhouskie, stone axe found at, 318.
Torish, Helmsdale, necklace, arrow, and

spear-head of flint found at, 56.
Tormore, Arran, stone circles at, 97-100.
Torran, Ford, Loch Awe, hoard of

bronze objects found at, 149.
Torrs, Glenluce, bronze chisel found at,

200.
Tuack, Kintore, urns found in stone

circle at, 101, 103.
Tynrich, Ballinluig, urns found in stone

circle at, 113.

UlST, SOUTH, bronze sword found in, 171.
Unstan, Stennis, Orkney, chambered

cairn at, 292.
URNS or BRONZE AGE TYPES—

From Alloa, 63.

Ardlair, 109.

Ardoyne, 109.

Auqnhorthies, 114.

Baden toy, 113.

Balbirnie, 116.

Balblair, 25.

Balcalk, 52.

INDEX.

397

URNS OF BRONZE AGE TYPES—
From Balmuick, 82.

Barnfauld, 43.

Benachie, 47.

Birsley, 70.

Blairgowrie, 43.

Blindmill, 53.

Bowerhouses, 26.

Broomend, 75, 76.

— Buckie, 80.

— Buoklyvie, Wester, 44.
Burreldales, 23.

Carnwath, 87.

Castle Fraser, 111.

Coilsfield, 87.

Collessie, 6, 7.

Craigdhu, 46.

Crawford, 58.

Cricbie, 104, 107.

- — - Dalmore, 48.

Dairy, 77.

Darnhall, 82.

Drem, 78.

Drimmie, 71.

Dunbar, 47.

Eddertoun, 90.

Freefield, 76.

Fullarton, 108.

Genoch, 45.

— Glenballoch, 111.
Glenforsa, 14.

- Glenhead, 83.
Kennyshillock, 86.

— Killucken, 48.

Kingcausie, 113.

Kingsbarns, 83.

— Kinneff, 59.

Lesmurdie, 73.

— Lierabol, 22.
Linlathen, 11.

- Magdalen Bridge, 30-36.
Monikie, 66.

Montblairy, 115.

Murleywell, 84.

Newbigeing, 23.

Ninewells, 85.

Oban, 85.

Old Pendrith, 47.

Parkhill, 79.

— Quarryford, 72.

- Ratho, 60.

URNS OF BRONZE AGE TYPES—

From Rayne, 109.

Roualdsay (North), 47.

Seamill, 73.

Shanwell, 37.

Sheriff-flats, 40-43.

Shuttlefield, 21.

Slap, 77.

• Stannergate, 85.

Stenton, 92.

Stobshiel, 19.

Sunhoney, 109.

Saylield, 54.

Tealing, 91.

Tents Moor, 81.

Tormore, 98-100.

Tuack, 103.

Tynrich, 113.

URNS OF STONE AGE TYPES —

From Achnacree, 271.

Camster, 252.

Garry whin, 248.

Kilchoan, 273.

Largie, 272.

Ormiegill, 246.

Unstan, 294, 296.

Yarhouse, 236.

. Urquhart, Elginshire, arrow-heads of
flint from, 356, 357.

hoard of gold armlets found at, 217.

knife of flint from, 369.

scrapers of flint from, 376.

spear-head of flint from, 355.

stone axe found at, 321.

WELBSLEBKN, Saxony, bronze halberd

from, 179.
Wester Ord, Invergordon, bronze blade,

oval, socketed, curved, found at, 146.
Whitehaugh Moss, Muirkirk, bronze

tanged dagger found at, 180.
Whiteleys, Stranraer, bronze dagger

found at, 177.
Wideford Hill, Orkney, chambered

cairn at, 288.

YARHOUSE, Caithness, chambered cairns

at, 230, 254, 256, 257, 258.

stone-settings at, 126.

Yetholm, Roxburghshire, bronze shields

found at, 156.

PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY,
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and of the Barons, Clergy, and others, who swore fealty to England in
1291-96. By the late ANDREW JERVISE, F.S.A. Scot. Re-written and cor-
rected by the Rev. JAMES GAMMACK, M.A. Illustrated with 14 Etchings
by W. HOLE, A.R.S.A. In Two Vols. Demy Svo, 28s ; or Quarto, 63s.

Aberdour and Inchcolme: being Historical Notices of the Parish and
Monastery. By the Rev. WILLIAM Ross, LL.D., Author of "Burgh Life in
Dunfermline," etc. Crown Svo. 6s.

EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

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